Effects of Kinect Adventures Games Versus Conventional Physical Therapy on Postural Control in Elderly People: A...

To compare the effectiveness of Kinect Adventures games versus conventional physiotherapy to improve postural control (PC), gait, cardiorespiratory fitness, and cognition of the elderly. In addition, we evaluated the safety, acceptability, and adherence to the interventions.

The study was a randomized clinical trial in which 46 elderly individuals were selected, mean age 69.3 (5.34) years. Participants were allocated to the Kinect Adventures Training Group (KATG) or the Conventional Physical Therapy Group (CPTG), 23 individuals in each group. Participants of both groups participated in 14 training sessions lasting 1 hour each, twice a week. The KATG practiced four Kinect Adventures games. The CPTG participated in conventional physiotherapy. The primary outcome was PC: Mini-Balance Evaluation Systems Test (Mini-BESTest), and secondary outcomes were gait: Functional Gait Assessment (FGA), cardiorespiratory fitness: Six-minute step test (6MST), and cognition: Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Acceptability was assessed through a questionnaire created by the researchers themselves. Adherence was assessed by the "frequency of the number of elderly individuals who completed the interventions and safety through the presence of adverse effects." Participants were assessed immediately pre- and posttreatment and fourth week after the end of the treatment. Statistical analysis was done through repeated-measures analysis of variance and Tukey post hoc test.

Both groups presented a significant improvement in the PC (Mini-BEST), gait (FGA), and cognition (MoCA) posttreatment that was maintained at fourth week after treatment (post hoc Tukey test; P < 0.05). Regarding cardiorespiratory fitness (6MST), the KATG presented improvement posttreatment and maintenance of the results in the fourth week after treatment. CPTG showed improvement only in fourth week after treatment (post hoc Tukey tests; P < 0.05). Regarding the acceptability, the questionnaire showed that both groups were satisfied with regard to the proposed interventions. There was 91% adherence in both training sessions. Regarding the safety, 34% and 26% of the individuals of the KATG and CPTG, respectively, presented adverse effects of delayed muscle pain in the lower limbs after the first session only.

There were no significant differences between the KATG and CPTG; both interventions provided positive effects on PC, gait, cardiorespiratory fitness, and cognition of the elderly.