The effect of balance training intervention on postural stability in children with asthma

Pulmonary rehabilitation is mainly focused on exercise training and breathing retraining in children with asthma. Conversely, balance training is not usually recommended for the treatment, although postural deficits were found in these patients. Therefore, this study assessed the effect of balance training intervention on postural stability in children with asthma.

Nineteen children with mild intermittent asthma (age 11.1 ± 2.1 years, height 147.6 ± 13.9 cm, weight 41.8 ± 13.3 kg) were randomly assigned to an experimental group or a control group and completed a four-week physiotherapy program including breathing exercises and aerobic physical training (six times/week, 45 minutes). Both groups performed the same training, but only the experimental group underwent exercises on balance devices. The center of pressure (CoP) velocity in the anteroposterior (V_y) and mediolateral (V_x) directions, and total CoP velocity (V_tot) were recorded before and after training in the preferred and the adjusted stances under eyes open (EO) and eyes closed (EC) conditions.

The addition of balance intervention led to significant improvements of V_tot (p = 0.02, p = 0.04) in both types of stance, V_x in the preferred stance (p = 0.03) and V_y in the adjusted stance (p = 0.01) under EO conditions. Significant improvements were also found in V_y in the adjusted stance (p = 0.01) under EC conditions.

Results of this study support the effectiveness of balance training as a part of physiotherapy treatment for improving balance performance, predominantly under EO conditions, in children with mild asthma.