JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Older adults tend to experience difficulties in switching quickly between various reliable sensory inputs, which ultimately may contribute to an increased risk of falls and injuries. Sideward falls are the most frequent cause of hip fractures among older adults. Recently exergame programs have been confirmed as beneficial tools for enhancing postural control, which can reduce the risk of falls. However, studies to explore more precisely which mechanism of exergaming directly influences older women’s ability to balance are still needed.

Objective:

To evaluate, in a single group pre-test/post-test/follow-up usability study, whether Kinect exergame balance training might have a beneficial impact on the sensory reweighting in women aged over 60 years.

Methods:

Fourteen healthy women (age: 69.57±4.66, Body Mass Index: 26.21±2.6) participated in the study. The volunteers trained with the commercially available games of Kinect for Xbox 360 console three times (30 minutes/session) a week over a 6-week period (total of 18 visits). Participants’ postural sway in both the anteroposterior (AP) and mediolateral (ML) directions was recorded with NeuroCom Balance Master 6.0. To assess and measure postural sensory reweighting, the Modified Clinical Test of Sensory Interaction of Balance was used, where volunteers were exposed to various changes in visual (eyes open or eyes closed) and/or surface conditions (firm or foam surface).

Results:

In the ML direction, Kinect exergame training caused a significant decrease in the sway path for both visual conditions (eyes open P<0.05, eyes closed P<0.05) and for both surface conditions (firm P<0.05, foam P<0.05) in post-training and during the follow-up measurements when compared to the baseline data. No significant change was detected in the AP direction after the training.

Conclusions:

The improved posturography measurements of the sway path in the ML direction might suggest that Kinect exergame balance training may cause lastinghave effects on sensory reweighting, thus balance of women aged over 60 years. Based on these results Kinect exergaming may provide a safe and potentially useful tool for improving postural stability in the crucial ML direction, thus it may help reduce the risk of falling.