Efeitos do treinamento de dupla tarefa no controle do equilíbrio dinâmico e estático de idosas pré-frágeis: um estudo piloto

The increasing world population of older individuals has become a subject of growing research for prevention and reversibility of the frailty because it is a major risk factor for the occurrence of falls, especially when it involves everyday situations of dual task. Some rehabilitation programs have already used the methods of dual-task with general exercises for improving gait and postural control, but has been reported that these interventions have little specificity with limited success to improve certain aspects of static and dynamic position during the performance of functional tasks. This study aimed to verify the measures of postural control in a group of elderly women with fragility phenotype after physical therapy intervention program based on dual-task treadmill training. We selected six pre-frail elderly subjects, with a minimum age of 65, female, living in the community and randomly assigned to two groups. The survey was conducted twice a week for 45 minutes, for four weeks. The simple task intervention consisted only in training on a treadmill and the dual task consisted of in treadmill training associated with visual stimuli. The assessments were made with the use of the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) and the Balance Master® computerized posturography, static and dynamically. The effects of retention were observed after one month, using the same instruments earlier used. The results showed a tendency toward improvement or maintenance of the balance after training on a treadmill, especially with respect to static equilibrium. Both groups showed the most notable changes in the variables related to gait, as the length and speed. The BBS scores and the baropodometric variables showed that the experimental group could keep all values similar or better even one month after completion of training unlike the control group. We concluded that the dual-task performance had no additional value in relation to the improvement of balance in general, but we observed that the effectiveness of visual stimulation occurred in the maintenance of short term balancevariables