Elderly Health Journal

Introduction: Stumbling or falling is a major health problem among the elderly which accounts for their majority of physical injuries such as pelvic fractures, disability, loss of independency and even death. The goal of the study was comparison of the effect of aerobic and resistance exercise on static and dynamic balance in old men.

Methods: A quasi-experimental study was conducted and thirty elderly males, who were referred to Jahandidegan institute of Borujen, were divided randomly in three empirical groups subdividing aerobic, resistance and control group. 24 hours before the start of and 24 hours after completion of eight weeks -aerobic and resistance exercise, all participants went under static and dynamic balance examination. The results were analysed by SPSS software version 19.

Results: Mean and standard deviation of dynamic balance scores before the exercise for the resistance, aerobic and control groups were 1017.6 ± 212.7, 930.5 ± 238.2, 1119.6 ± 287.3 and after eight weeks exercise were 851.7 ± 155.5, 743.4 ± 130.1, 1220.06 ± 226.9 respectively. On the other hand, Mean and standard deviation of static balance scores before the exercise in resistance, aerobic and control groups were 2280.3±2286.2, 3534.9±4455.4, 1284.1 ± 231.4 and after eight weeks exercise were 5563.4 ± 8014.6, 6089 ± 7888.4, 1297.1 ± 214.4 respectively. ANOVA test revealed that the difference in changes of three groups were not statistically significant (p > 0.05).

Conclusion: Despite marginal correlation between static and dynamic balance as the outcomes of aerobic and resistant exercise these activities are proposed because such the exercises reduce incidence of falling events and related-injuries; and also risk of independency among older adults.