Abstract

Falls in the elderly have important clinical and economic costs and interventions that may reduce the risk of such problems are potentially important. Although evidence exists for a range of exercise interventions, few have looked at a Pilates-based intervention in a supervised community-based setting and none have specifically measured gait parameters as an outcome. This observational study investigated gait parameters including inter-stride variability (ISV) and postural sway in a group (n = 9) of elderly (age range, 60-76) subjects attending a weekly Pilates class over eight weeks. The results suggest that significant improvement in walking speed (0.14 m/s (95% CI: 0.06-0.21)), step cycle (0.07 m (95% CI: 0.01-0.14)) and length (0.10 m (95% CI: 0.05-0.15)) and a composite ambulation index (6.5% (95% CI: 1.85-11.26)) were seen post the intervention, while coefficients of variation decreased around 15%. In addition both anterior-posterior sway decreased along with a improvement in a fall risk index (FRI). Inter-stride variability on the other hand did not change. The results of this study suggest that a short Pilates program may have the potential to improve gait and sway parameters, including those associated with fall risk.

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