Impact of Mild Level Exercise Program on Incidence of Falls, Gait and Balance Among Elderly People at Selected Rural Areas of Belagavi District.

Abstract

Context: Exercises that are low-intensity can aid with balance and gait. Regular low-intensity exercise is a beneficial substitute for treating balance and gait issues brought on by ageing. Objective: To assess incidence of falls, gait and balance of elderly people before and after low intensity exercise program and to assess effectiveness of low intensity exercise program on incidence of falls, gait and balance of elderly people.

Setting and design: The study was conducted in selected rural areas of Belgaum district and pre experimental one group pretest post test study design was used.

Materials and Methods: Population was comprised of elderly people aged 60 years and above. The sample size was 30 and non probability purposive sampling technique was used to select the samples. Berg balance scale and Performance oriented mobility assessment scale for gait was used to assess gait and balance..

Statistical Analysis used:Descriptiveand inferential statistics were used with the helpof SPSSversion 20.

Results: In pretest12 (40%) of elders had incidence of fall during the one month prior to pre test and is reduced in post test as 7(23.3%) were had incidence of fall after one month to interventional program. The obtained value of ‘ t’ (29) = 6.97 for gait and ‘ t’ (29) = 2.65 for balance are found significant at 0.05 level of significance, indicating that the low intensity exercise program has helped elderly to improve their gait and balance.

Conclusions: Low intensity exercise program helped elderly people to improve their gait and balance. So, such programs need to be implemented in community area to prevent incidence of fall and improve gait and balance among the elderly population.