Effect of Osteoanabolic Exercises on Gait, Balance & Fear of Fall Among Osteoporotic Females

Overview

With the increase in life expectancy women spend more than one-third of their life time in post-menopausal state leading to osteoporosis in later stages. Therefore a decrease in temporal-spatial parameters of gait, high risk of fracture, imbalance in functional parameters, fear of fall and compromised health-related quality of life is observed among osteoporotic females. Several physical activities and balance training programs have been implemented globally but nationally no program has yet been designed catering gait balance and fear of fall altogether as a combined program. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Osteoanabolic exercises on Temporal-Spatial gait parameters, Gait Stability Ratio (GSR) and Bone Mineral Density (BMD) among the osteoporotic females. Moreover, the effectiveness of these exercises was evaluated on dynamic balance using Timed Up and Go Test (TUG). Furthermore, the impact on fear of fall was identified using Fall Efficacy ScaleInternational (FES-I).

A 3-arm Randomized Controlled Trial was conducted at the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Ziauddin Hospital using the envelope method. The participants were screened on the Physical Activity Readiness and You Questionnaire (PARQ \&YOU). Ninety-three osteoporotic females were randomly allocated into three groups; where; participant in group A' received aerobic training protocol, a participant in group B' resistance training and participant in group C' Osteoanabolic training. A Frequency Intensity Time Type (FITT) protocol according to the American College of Sports Medicine for aerobic and resistance training was incorporated whereas for Osteoanabolic group combination training protocol was used. Twelve weeks of training was conducted where pre and post readings were calculated using activPAL, TUG, FES-I and Peripheral DXA Scan.