Departamento de Desporto e Saúde, Escola de Saúde e Desenvolvimento Humano, Universidade de Évora, Largo dos Colegiais 2, Évora, Portugal.
Comprehensive Health Research Centre (CHRC), Universidade de Évora, Évora, Portugal.
BMC Public Health. 2022 Jul 11;21(Suppl 2):2336. doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-13725-5.
Falls are associated with cognitive and physical function deterioration. Attention decline, inaccurate affordance perception, and balance impairment are considered to be risk factors for falls. Furthermore, few studies have reported psychomotor intervention as a fall prevention program. This study aimed to investigate the effects of two multimodal programs on attention, perceptual and stepping-forward boundaries, and balance in community-dwelling older adults at risk of falling.
Fifty-one community-dwelling older adults were recruited to participate in a 24-week randomized controlled trial. Participants (75.4 ± 5.6 years) were randomly assigned to one of three groups: the 1) multimodal psychomotor program [EG1], 2) combined program (multimodal psychomotor program + whole-body vibration program) [EG2], and 3) control group. Participants were assessed at baseline, at post-intervention, and after a 12-week no-intervention follow-up period.
The within-group comparisons showed significant improvements in attention and balance in EG1 and EG2 after the intervention (p < 0.05). The magnitudes of the treatment effects were similar in both EGs, ranging from medium to large. Decreases in the fall rate were also observed in EG1 (- 44.2%) and EG2 (- 63.0%) (p < 0.05). During the follow-up period, these improvements in attention were maintained, while those in balance were reversed in both EGs. No significant differences between groups were found.
These study results suggest that both multimodal exercise programs were effective for fall prevention and were well tolerated by the participants. Specifically, EG1 and EG2 showed identical improvements in attention, and EG2 presented a slightly larger enhancement in balance and a larger decrease in the fall rate. Our findings demonstrate the benefits of maintaining the psychomotor intervention program by itself or in combination with the whole-body vibration program to prevent cognitive and physical function deterioration.
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03446352 . Date of registration: February 26, 2018.
跌倒与认知和身体功能的恶化有关。注意力下降、不准确的知觉和平衡受损被认为是跌倒的危险因素。此外，很少有研究报道心理运动干预作为预防跌倒的方案。本研究旨在探讨两种多模式方案对有跌倒风险的社区居住老年人的注意力、知觉和向前跨步边界以及平衡的影响。
招募了 51 名社区居住的老年人参加一项 24 周的随机对照试验。参与者（75.4±5.6 岁）被随机分配到以下三组之一：1）多模式心理运动方案[EG1]，2）联合方案（多模式心理运动方案+全身振动方案）[EG2]和 3）对照组。参与者在基线、干预后和 12 周无干预随访期间接受评估。
组内比较显示，干预后 EG1 和 EG2 的注意力和平衡均有显著改善（p<0.05）。两个 EG 的治疗效果幅度相似，均为中到大。EG1（-44.2%）和 EG2（-63.0%）的跌倒率也有所下降（p<0.05）。在随访期间，EG1 和 EG2 的注意力均得到维持，而平衡则恢复到干预前水平。两组之间无显著差异。
这些研究结果表明，两种多模式运动方案均有效预防跌倒，且参与者均能耐受。具体来说，EG1 和 EG2 在注意力方面表现出相同的改善，而 EG2 在平衡方面表现出稍大的增强，跌倒率下降更大。我们的研究结果表明，维持心理运动干预方案本身或与全身振动方案联合应用均可预防认知和身体功能的恶化。
ClinicalTrials.gov 标识符：NCT03446352。注册日期：2018 年 2 月 26 日。
