Effects Of Vibration Training Performed With Sitting Posture On Lower Extremity Muscle Strength,Balance And Mobility In The Oldest Old Living In Day-Care Center

Purpose: Vibration Training(VT)has acquired widespread development in different fields as a form of exercise since it was noticed at the early part of the 21 st century.It has been recognized that VT can be regarded as an effective way to stimulate human potential and improve physical function.In addition,older or frail people are proposed to benefit from this kind of exercise.Nonetheless,the general theoretical framework of this field has not been established and there are still a lot of controversies,especially the adoption of amplitude and frequency.Therefore,it remains to be studied in term of these existing questions.The purpose of this research was to assess the effectiveness of VT with sitting posture on muscle strength,balance,and mobility in the oldest old living in daycare center.Method: 36 eligible old persons who live in day-care center were randomly assigned to vibration exercise group(81.1±6.6yrs,n=20,VT)and control group(84.6±5.7yrs,n=16,CON).The VT group performed vibration exercise programs(amplitude:2mm;frequency:6-26Hz;10-15mins×1-3 bouts;1min/rest time;3 times/weekly)by using a vibration platform named BODYGREEN.However,the CON group did not participate in any training sessions.Some measures such as FTSST(Five Times Sit to Stand Test)for strength,Win-Pod balance system and intensive romberg test for balance were implemented.Three indicators like TUGT(Timed Up and Go Test)for functional mobility,10MWT(10m Walking Test)and 6MWD(6-minute Walk Distance)were executed at the beginning and the end of the intervention period.Statistical analyses were performed by using the statistical software package SPSS version 22.0.Changes from pre-to posttest within each group were analyzed by using a paired sample t-test,whereas changes between groups were analyzed by using independent sample t-test.Significance level was set at P<0.05.Results: A slight increase appears(5.8%)in VT group compared with a decrease(7.3%)in CON group.Regarding balance tests with eye open,the significant drop(P<0.05)was found in total trajectory length,path areas and Y axis deviation distance in VT group.The CON group showed a slight increase.In terms of the rest of Win-Pod indicators such as average deviation velocity,X axis deviation velocity,Y axis deviation velocity and X axis deviation distance.The VT group showed improvement in all of them,whereas the CON group had incoherence results.On the other hand,in terms of the score with eye close,total trajectory length and Y axis deviation distance in VT group showed a significant increase and the CON group declined in both of them.The VT group increased with different degrees but the CON group saw a totally opposite trend.No significant difference was found in intensive romberg test despite a slight increase in mean value.In walking tests,there were slight improvements in TUGT(8.4%)and 10 m walking test(1.6%)contrast to slight decrease(1.2%)in CON group.Nevertheless,both the VT group(0.7%)and the CON group(2.4%)showed decrease in 6MWD.Conclusions: 12 wks vibration training performed with sitting posture has favorable effects on muscle strength,balance,functional mobility and walking speed in oldest old who lived in daycare center.The effects of vibration training on walking endurance is limited.The muscle activities of low extremity were adviced to be investigated in the future studies.