The effect of dual-task training on balance of elderly women: with the motor and cognitive approach

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of motor and cognitive dual-task training on dynamic balance of elderly women. For this purpose, 27 old women (aged 60 -82 years) from the old people center of Birjand city were selected randomly and divided into 3 groupd based on their TUG scores. The groups comprised of cognitive dual-task training, motor dual-task training and control. Two experimental groups received their specific interventions for 4 weeks, 3 times a week and 45-min each session. The motor and cognitive dual-task groups performed some motor or cognitive tasks respectively, concurrent with the balance training. For data analysis, mixed ANOVA (3*2) with repeated measures were used. It was found that both motor and cognitive dual-task training methods had significant improvement in dynamic balance of elderly women (p<0.05). But there was no significant difference between these two methods (p>0/05). Therefore, dual-task balance training, either motor or cognitive methods can improve the allocation of the attention into the concurrent tasks and consequently improve balance and decrease the rate of falling in old women.