| Author: | Ngai, Mei-ping |
| Title: | The influence of a walking exercise program on the balance of residents ambulating with stick in a local care and attention home |
| Degree: | M.Sc. |
| Year: | 1999 |
| Subject: | Older people -- Health and hygiene -- China -- Hong Kong Equilibrium (Physiology) Walking -- China -- Hong Kong Gait in humans -- China -- Hong Kong Exercise for older people -- China -- Hong Kong Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Multi-disciplinary Studies Department of Rehabilitation Sciences |
| Pages: | x, 77 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Elders living in institutions are considered to be frail and less likely to be engaged in ambulatory activities. Validated exercise programs to improve their balance control during walking are rare from literature. The objective of the study is to investigate the effect of a task-specific walking exercise program on the balance of residents ambulating with stick in a Care and Attention Home. This study was of the pretest-posttest control group design. Thirty subjects of stick ambulators living in a C&A Home were recruited and randomly assigned to the experimental (n=15) and control group (n=15) by drawing lots. Subjects of both groups received morning class, which included general mobilising exercise in sitting three sessions per week for six weeks. The experimental group additionally underwent the walking exercise program five sessions per week for six weeks. The subjects' performance of balance was tested by the Berg balance scale, Timed up & go and Functional reach which were conducted at the beginning, at the end of the second, fourth and sixth week of program for both groups. Follow-up test for the control group was done after three months. Three post-program tests were performed for the experimental group to evaluate the carry-over effect of the walking exercise program. Repeated measures one-way ANOVA was employed for statistical analysis. The results showed that there were significant difference of balance scores in the experimental group during the six-week walking exercise program (p=0.000, 0.001 and 0.001 for Berg balance scale, Timed up & go test and Functional reach respectively). Changes of balance performance during the six-week exercise period were non-significant in the control group (p=0.858, 0.193 and 0.398 for Berg balance scale, Timed up & go test and Functional reach respectively). Comparing the two group means using General Linear Model (two-way general factorial), there were no significant difference between groups across testing sessions during the exercise period due to low statistical power of the tests. After the completion of the six-week exercise program for three months, the balance performance of the control group remained similar using paired t-test (p=0.104, 0.176 and 0.104 for Berg balance scale, Timed up & go test and Functional reach respectively). The walking exercise program showed to have carry-over effect as measured by Timed up & go and Functional reach. In conclusion, the six-week walking exercise program could improve the balance performance of residents ambulating with stick in a local Care and Attention Home. Further study on a larger sample size is desirable. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b1477365x.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 2.96 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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