Investigating the Effect of Cognitive and Sensorimotor Exercises on the Functional Balance of the Elderly

Abstract

Background and aims: The elderly living in nursing homes have different motor situations comparedwith their peers, which can affect different motor functions. Investigating the characteristics of balancehas always been of interest to researchers due to its importance in the functional independence ofthe elderly. Thus, the present research aimed to investigate the effect of cognitive and sensorimotorexercises on the functional balance of the elderly.Methods: This quasi-experimental study was performed with the intragroup comparison design, aswell as pre- and post-test measurement stages in Iran during 2017. A total of 60 elders were chosenthrough the convenience sampling method. Accordingly, the subjects were matched in four groupsafter performing the pretest with demographic, physical activity readiness, and Mini-Mental StateExamination questionnaires and Tinetti test. Each group performed eight exercise situations lastingfor 5-10 seconds by taking the overload principle into account throughout 24 sessions. The statisticalpopulation of this research consisted of the elderly living in nursing homes under the supervision ofthe Welfare Organization of Shiraz, including 875 individuals. In general, 60 subjects were chosenthrough a voluntary method (age: 61.7 ± 7.6 years old, weight: 65.2 ± 16.2 kg, and height: 157.7 ±6.7 cm). During the data collection, 14 subjects left the study for different reasons. The balancecharacteristics were measured by the Tinetti test. Finally, statistical analysis was performed throughthe difference of the scores of measurement stages and by one-way ANOVA and Tukey post hoc tests.Results: The comparison of cognitive, sensorimotor, and combined groups with the control groupregarding the dependent variables of the research indicated that cognitive exercises have no significanteffect on balance (P = 0.103), while the sensorimotor (P = 0.002) and combined (P = 0.002) exerciseswere effective on balance.Conclusion: In general, the significance of the balance following sensorimotor and combined exercisescompared to the insignificance of cognitive exercises can highlight the importance of sensorimotorexercises in the balance of the elderly living in nursing homes.