Improving Balance in Older People: A Double-Blind Randomized Clinical Trial of Three Modes of Balance Training

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine and compare the effects of conventional, multisensory, and dual-task exercises on balance ability in a group of older community dwellers over a four-week period. Forty-four older people were randomly assigned to one of the three training groups. The score on the Fullerton Advanced Balance (FAB) scale, gait stability ratio, and walking speed were evaluated at baseline and after four weeks of training. All three groups showed significant (p < .001) improvement in the FAB scores following the three training programs (on average, 3 points for the conventional and multisensory groups and 3.8 points for the dual-task group). The improvements were comparable across the three intervention groups (p = .23). There were no statistically significant differences, neither within nor between groups, in the gait stability ratio and walking speed across the three training groups. In a four-week period, all the training modes were effective in improving balance of older adults, with no significant superiority of one mode of training over another.

“Walking” through the sensory, cognitive, and temporal degradations of healthy aging

“…Current research efforts to counteract and/or postpone the negative effects of normal aging have been primarily focusing on physical and cognitive training protocols to prevent falls and enhance cognitive processes, thus partly ignoring the benefits associated with multisensory processing in healthy aging. Yet, the research reviewed in the previous section suggests that the aging brain tends to rely increasingly on multisensory integration by using information from several modalities so as to enhance cognition and perception, as well as to improve gait .…”

“…Yet, the research reviewed in the previous section suggests that the aging brain tends to rely increasingly on multisensory integration by using information from several modalities so as to enhance cognition and perception, as well as to improve gait . The few attempts made to use multisensory principles as a solution to the age‐related alterations in sensory, cognitive, temporal, and motor processing have not truly exploited the variety of different types of sensory information available so as to optimize performance (e.g., walking tasks with eyes open or closed at different ground compositions) . Here, we aimed to address this gap by providing evidence supporting the use of multisensory stimulation and processing as a potential strategy to ameliorate the sensory decrements, cognitive decline, altered temporal percepts, and problematic gait patterns often observed in aging individuals …”

“…The continuously increasing percentage of the aging population creates the need to better understand the normal aging process. Current research efforts to ameliorate the negative effects of normal aging have been focusing on research to prevent falls, enhance particular cognitive processes, or even provide the elderly with assistive companions . To date, however, no systematic effort has been made to explore the benefits of multisensory integration for successful aging.…”

Treinamento combinado versus multicomponente em parâmetros de saúde de mulheres de 50 a 75 anos: associação com variantes genéticas

“…O treinamento multicomponente (TM) caracteriza-se como a associação de várias modalidades de exercício, tais como exercícios aeróbios, de flexibilidade, de força e resistência muscular, de coordenação motora, de agilidade e de equilíbrio (ANSAI et al, 2016;BOUAZIZ et al, 2016;BAKER et al, 2007) (ZHUANG et al, 2014;ANSAI et al, 2016;NEMATOLLAHI et al, 2015;GUDLAUGSSON et al, 2013).…”

Efeitos de um treinamento multimodal no controle postural de idosos da comunidade

“…18,19,20 . Os déficits dentro de qualquer componente único não são normalmente suficientes para causar instabilidade postural, porque mecanismos compensatórios de outros componentes impedem que isso aconteça 33,37 Os protocolos de treinamento multimodal nos estudos, geralmente, combinam de três 18,52,53,54,55,58,57 a quatro 56,57,60,61 modalidades de exercícios. As principais modalidades de exercícios estão associadas com exercícios resistidos 15,52,53,57,59,60,61 e de equilíbrio 52,55,56,60,61 , seguidas de exercícios de resistência muscular 15,58 , aeróbicos 58,60 , dupla tarefa 59 , Tai Chi 56 , exercícios cognitivos 57 e alongamento muscular 60 .…”