The effect of balance training with an innovative approach compared to traditional balance exercises

• Main Author: Waite, Brian Curtis
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01.01.2013
• Subjects: Kinesiology; Occupational Therapy; Physical therapy
• ISBN: 1303530783; 9781303530784

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of an X Box 360 Kinect™ game as a modality for improving balance. Specifically, this study explores the use of the Target Kick mini game on Kinect Sports™ as a tool for VR rehabilitation. Subjects (N=18, age 23.3 ±2.87 yrs, mass 71.83 ±15.25 kg, height 168.4 ±7.79 cm) with no lower extremity injury were randomly placed into three groups (X Box n = 6, Traditional n = 6, and Control n = 6). The X Box (XBOX) group performed ten minutes of balance training by playing an X Box game for 18 sessions over six weeks. The Traditional (TRAD) group preformed 2 balance exercises for the same duration as the X Box group. Subjects were tested on the Bertec Balance platform (Model BP5050) while performing a single leg stance for 15 sec (100 Hz) before and after the 6 weeks of intervention. Total excursion (TE) of center of pressure (COP) in the medial-lateral (M-L) and anterior-posterior (A-P) planes and root mean square velocity (RMS vel) of COP in the M-L and A-P planes were extrapolated from COP data. A 3 (treatment group) x 2 (time) mixed model analysis of variance with post hoc Tukey follow-up test and paired t-test as appropriate ( = 0.05) was used to determine significant changes. Also game scores in the XBOX group were recorded to compare balance performance with game performance. Pearson's r was used to determine a correlation between game score and balance. It was determined that there were differences for TE in the M-L plane (F(2,15) = 5.554 p = .016), TE in the A-P plane (F(2,15) = 5.565 p = .016) for time and a difference in RMS vel. A-P (F(2,15) = 3.740 p = .048) for groups. Specifically, TE M-L saw a decrease from pretest to post test for the TRAD group (t(5) = 5.263 p = .003); TE A-P saw a decrease from pretest to posttest for the TRAD (t(5) = 3.044 p = .029) and CON (t(5) = 3.335 p = .021) groups; and RMS vel. A-P was significantly lower at posttest between XBOX and TRAD groups (F(2,15) = 5.340 p = .018). Although the TRAD group did decrease from pretest to posttest in TE M-L and TE A-P, the results from this study are not strong enough to determine that the treatment was effective. No correlation was found between game scores and COP (pretest TE M-L r = .358 p = .486, TE A-P r = .785 p = .064, posttest TE M-L r = .305 p = .557, TE A-P r = .684 p = .134).