EXercising with C omputers in L ater L ife (EXCELL) - pilot and feasibility study of the acceptability of the Nintendo® WiiFit in community-dwelling fallers

Abstract

BackgroundFalls management programmes have been instituted to attempt to reduce falls. This pilot study was undertaken to determine whether the Nintendo® WiiFit was a feasible and acceptable intervention in community-dwelling older fallers.FindingsCommunity-dwelling fallers over 70 years were recruited and attended for computer-based exercises (n = 15) or standard care (n = 6). Balance and fear of falling were assessed at weeks 0, 4 and 12. Participants were interviewed on completion of the study to determine whether the intervention was acceptable.Eighty percent of participants attended 75% or more of the exercise sessions. An improvement in Berg Score was seen at four weeks (p = 0.02) and in Wii Age at 12 weeks (p = 0.03) in the intervention group. There was no improvement in balance scores in the standard care group.ConclusionWiiFit exercise is acceptable in self-referred older people with a history of falls. The WiiFit has the potential to improve balance but further work is required.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov - NCT01082042

Exercise and rehabilitation delivered through exergames in older adults: An integrative review of technologies, safety and efficacy

“…Of the 29 studies that used a RCT or pre-posttest design, 21 studies included an exercise control intervention (9,13,32,33,38,43,44,47,49,53,55,57,60,64,65,67,69,72,73,80,81). The methodological quality of these 21 studies according to the PEDro classification scale is presented in Table 6.…”

“…The primary aim of the reviewed studies was to evaluate the potential effect of gaming/VR exercise on balance, either alone (9,12,(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46), in combination with other physical abilities such as strength or mobility (11,13,(47)(48)(49)(50)(51), or in combination with falls or fear of falling, cognition, quality of life, or user experience (52)(53)(54)(55)(56)(57)(58)(59)(60)(61)(62). Seven studies investigated the effect of gaming/VR exercise on gait parameters (63)(64)(65)(66)(67)(68)(69), and six studies examined the effectiveness with regard to different physical functions and associated fall risk (10,(70)(71)(72)…”

“…For the 35 studies using Nintendo Wii, two studies used only the Wii Sports bowling game (34,55), while the remaining 33 studies used two or more games during the intervention. Furthermore, 11 of the Nintendo Wii studies used games that targeted balance only (11, 35, 37, 42-44, 47, 57, 58, 73, 82), while 16 used a combination of games that targeted different physical functions in addition to balance, such as strength, endurance, and mobility (10,13,32,40,45,49,52,56,60,69,70,74,77,80,81,86). For those studies that did not utilize Nintendo Wii, only three studies (51,79,84) aimed to have an effect on more than one physical function.…”

“…reported (32,44,55,60,67,72,80), and five studies had no observed differences between the exergaming and active control groups (9,13,49,57,73 Finally, patient-reported outcome measures indicated less fear of falling in one study only (38), and improved scores on the Activity-specific Balance Confidence scale in another (33). The study by Duque et al (38) was the only one reporting on fall incidence, which was significantly lower in the exergaming group than in the exercise control group nine months after initial assessments.…”

Benefícios do treinamento de exercícios com o Nintendo(r) Wii na população de idosos saudáveis: revisão de literatura

“…The objective evaluation of the dynamic balance was taken into account in seven studies, in which the evaluation instrument was the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) 14 21 .…”