The effect of virtual reality training program on the Functional Fitness of the elderly

Introduction: The aging populations around the world are rising dramatically. Decreased age-related functional fitness that including muscle strength, flexibility, balance, agility, speed, and aerobic endurance, negatively affects the quality of life. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of virtual reality exercises on the elderlychr('39')s functional fitness. Methods: The present study is semi-experimental, Twenty-four elderly people (60-75 years old) were selected by available sampling and randomly divided into two groups: Experimental group (6 males, 6 females, mean age= 66.50 ± 3.80 years old) and control (5 males, 7 females, mean age=  66.75 ± 3.27 years old). After taking the pre-test using elderly functional fitness tests, the intervention was performed in 9 weeks, 3 sessions per week, and an hour each session. And after the end of the training sessions, of them were taken Post-test. Data were analyzed by SPSS (version 24) at the significance level of 0.05. Results: The results showed that virtual reality exercises on functional fitness of the elderly, timed up and go test (P = 0.001), 30-s chair stand (P = 0.002), arm curl (P = 0.002), 2-minutes step test (P = 0.005), scratch back (P = 0.001) chair sit and reach (P = 0.001) had a significant effect. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, it seems that virtual reality training program can be used as a new training method to improve the elderlychr('39')s functional fitness parameters in daily programs of nursing homes.