Effect Of Bilateral Ankle Joint Mobilisation On Functional Balance In Community Dwelling Elderly

ABSTRACT

Background: Falls are most frequent cause of accident related injury and are frequently associated with accident related death in the elderly. While an individual’s risk for falling is associated with a variety of sensory, motor, cognitive and environmental variables, it ultimately depends on their frequency of loss of balance episodes and their ability to recover balance by stepping, grasping or swaying (via the ankle strategy or hip strategy). Although visual, vestibular and somatosensory functions are known to be contributing factors in maintaining balance, they are not as easily altered as muscle strength and joint range of motion and stiffness. The study aimed To assess the effects of bilateral ankle joint mobilisation on functional balance in community dwelling elderly Materials and methods: In the present study a convenience sample of 60 community dwelling elderly between the age 65 to 75 years wererandomly and evenly divided into 2 groupsThe Experimental Group &Control Group.For the purpose of selecting the subject in the study they were evaluated with the Time Up And Go Test.Maitland joint mobilization three times a week for four weeks was performed for bilateral ankle joint for the experimental group.The Control group were not given any exercises during the study protocol. At the end of 4 weeks, the outcome measures Functional Reach Test (FRT) andOne leg Stance Test (OLST) were assessed pre & post intervention in both the groups and the data was statistically analysed. Results: Intragroup analysis of both groups pre and post intervention showed statistically significant values for both the outcome measures FRT and OLST ( p value< 0.05). Intergroup analysis also showed statistically significant values for outcome measures inferring that experimental group was better than the control group (p value < 0.05). Conclusion:The study concludes that Ankle joint mobilisation helps in improving the dynamic balance in elderly individuals.