Comparison of square stepping exercises and foam stability exercises on falls in community-dwelling elderly

Increased risk of falls in the elderly leads to activity restriction eventually causing the capacity to decline and further falls. The objective of this study was to compare the effect of Square Stepping Exercises and Foam Stability Exercises on the risk of falls. Sixty-six community-dwelling elderly, 65 years and above (males=29 andfemales=37), of Pune city, were selected for this study. All participants were divided randomly into two groups. Group l(Males=16;females=17) received Foam Stability Exercises and Group 2 (males=13; females=20) received Square Stepping exercises 5 times a week for 4 weeks. Berg Balance Scale was used to assess the risk of falls and the Fall Efficacy Scale-international was used to assess fear of falls. Outcome measures were taken pre and after four weeks of intervention. The findings revealed that both the groups showed statistically significant improvement after the interventions in scores of Berg's Balance Scale (p<0.005) and Falls Efficacy Scale- International (p<0.005). However, the between-group comparison showed that group 2 had more improvement in both the measures. Based on the findings of this study, it may be concluded that Square Stepping Exercises when performed for 4 weeks showed better improvement in reducing risk and fear of fall in community-dwelling elders as compared to foam stability exercises.