COMPARATIVE STUDY TO EVALUATE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF VESTIBULAR REHABILITATION VERSUS DUAL TASK TRAINING ON BALANCE &GAIT IN OLDER ADULTS.

Abstract

Objective: The study was done to evaluate the effectiveness Of Vestibular Rehabilitation Versus Dual Task Training on Balance & Gait in older adults. Methods: A total of 60 subjects were randomly assigned into 2 groups, Group-A Vestibular Rehabilitation (VRT) (n=30) and Group- B Dual-task Training (n=30). Both received intervention for 45 minutes in a day 3 times in a week for 4 weeks. Participants were assisted with The Functional Gait Assessment (FGA) and Time up and Go (TUG) after 4 weeks of intervention. Result: Vestibular Rehabilitation significantly improved (p = 0.01) with elderly participants. The FGA significantly improved with a large effect size, (p = 0.02).Specifically, component tasks such as walking with horizontal head turns (p= 0.03), gait with a narrow base of support (p = 0.02), ambulating backward (p = 0.04) significantly improved. The TUG component task gait initiation significantly improved (p= 0.02). However, there were no significant differences in Dual-task Traininggroup analysis for post intervention outcome when measured for FGA (p= 0.6) and TUG (p= 0.4). Conclusion: The present study shows there was a significant improvement in the Vestibular Rehabilitation therapy over Dual-task Training in elderly people on balance and gait performance. Our results are encouraging to use VRT as a part of rehabilitation protocol by improving their balance and gait and gaining confidence of walking by reducing the risk of falls on these elderly individuals without vestibular disorders.

Keywords: Gait, Vestibular Rehabilitation, elderly people