Date of Award

2020-01-01

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Interdisciplinary Health Sciences

Advisor(s)

Jeffrey D. Eggleston

Abstract

Falling is the second leading cause of accidental or injury-related death in the aging population worldwide and a leading cause of serious injury. Whole-body vibration (WBV) training has been implemented as a way to improve functional performance among the elderly and reduce the falls risk. The purposes of this study were: 1) examine to what extent a six-week course of WBV training reduced falls risk and improved fall outcomes in response to slips, and 2) examine whether the benefits of WBV training could be retained at least 2 months after the completion of the entire training session. A total of 17 independently living, healthy older adults were recruited for the 6-week WBV intervention and were randomly assigned to the WBV group or the control (CON) group. Participants in the WBV group performed three ten-minute sessions per week for six weeks with a vibration frequency of 20 Hz and 1.3-millimeter vibration amplitude. The CON group performed the same protocol, but instead of vibration, they encountered an audio recording of the vibrator motor noise. Fall risk evaluation and treadmill slip outcomes were assessed prior to the six-week training period, at the end of the six-week training period, and two-months after the completion of the protocol. There were no significant (p<0.05) improvements between groups in any of the measures for the fall risk evaluation or the treadmill slip outcomes. Both groups saw significant improvements throughout the study, showing signs of performance retention for the ten-minute walking test (10MWT) and the two-minute walking test (2MWT). Overall, the study findings revealed that six weeks of WBV was no more beneficial than the CON group.

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

136 pages

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Fabricio Saucedo Jr.

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