the effect and persistence of Otago exercise program on balance, cardiovascular endurance and lower limb strength in elderly women with a history of falls

Introduction: Impaired balance is one of the consequences of aging that causes disruption and inability to function in these people and also causes the elderly to fall. All of this increases the importance of preventing the risk of falls for the elderly. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect and persistence of Otago exercise program on balance, cardiovascular endurance and lower limb strength in elderly women with a history of falls. Methods: This study is a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest design and survival phase, in which 30 elderly women aged 60 to 70 years were randomly divided into two equal experimental groups of 15 people in Otago and control group (15 people). The experimental group performed Otago exercises (8 weeks, 3 sessions per week and 45 minutes per session). Before and after 8 weeks of training and one month after training, in order to measure balance, cardiovascular endurance and lower limb strength of the subjects, respectively, from Y test, , The 6-minute walk test and the 30-second standing-up test were measured. In the inferential statistics section, analysis of variance with repeated measures at a significance level of 95% (P <0.05) was used to analyze the data.  Results: The results showed that in the experimental group there was a significant difference in the scores obtained between the pre-test and post-test groups in balance, cardiovascular endurance and lower limb strength (p≥0.05). However, there was no significant difference in the control group for all three variables (p≥0.05). Conclusion: The results showed that the Otago training group significantly improves balance, cardiovascular endurance and lower limb strength in the elderly. Therefore, Otago exercises can be used to reduce the risk of falls and improve postural control in the elderly.