Effects of Game-based Virtual Reality Intervention on Senior Fitness, Fall Prevention and Balance Function Among Older Adults

Taipei Medical University40 enrolled

Overview

The purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness between game-based virtual reality intervention and conventional health education in improving older adults' balance knowledge, and let them know how to prevent falling. The intervention group will receive virtual reality games in person and read the health education flier, while the control group was assigned to read the health education flier and follow suit the video of balance exercise.

Falls can lead to disability, sickbed and even death of the elderly, and it ranks second among the top ten which causes death in Taiwan. In the past, when multifaceted exercise interventions were conducted for the elderly, most of them focused on group strength training and aerobic exercise, but lacked individualized balance training, resulting in a low degree of cooperation.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Balance

Interventions

Game-based virtual reality (Game)BEHAVIORAL

Besides reading the health education flier, they also need to trained with the game-based virtual reality in Biodex Medical Systems, which is a machine, includes 4 games: Catch Game, boating, Ball Maze, and Word Search. And all of the games are balance control games. The games were implemented in person for 30 minutes one time, total is 16 times (once to twice day a week).

Conventional health educationBEHAVIORAL

The health education flier was made refer to medical institutions, e.g., hospitals or clinics, the video of balance exercise was collected from the internet. Participants were assigned to read the health education flier, and follow suit the video of balance exercise at home of their free will.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 65 YearsMax age: 99 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Elderly people over the age of 65-99. Exclusion Criteria: * cognitive impairment * neurological diseases * severe osteoporosis * lower limb joint surgery * discomfort symptoms during exercise

Locations (1)

Taipei Medical University

Taipei County, Taiwan

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Senior Fitness Test

Participants were assigned to do 2 tasks of the test. One is time up and go, and the other one is eyes-open single-leg stance test. We recorded the time (in seconds) they took.