Comparison of Balance Ability in Elderly According to Lower Extremity Strengthening Exercise Types

The purpose of this study was to compare balance ability between PNF technique using thera-band and conservative lower extremity strengthening exercise in elderly. Thirty subjects who have healthy female elderly and classify normal cognitive ability by mini mental status examination (MMSE) were assigned to experimental and control group. The subject of experimental group performed PNF method exercise and the subjects of control group performed conservative lower extremity strengthening exercise during 4 weeks. We measured balance ability by TUG test, BBS and OLST. An independent t-test was used to compare the balance ability of both groups after each exercise.BR The paired t-test was used to compare balance ability between pre- and post-exercise. The result showed that the balance ability of experimental group are significantly different between pre- and post-exercise. In control group, the balance ability are significantly different between pre- and post-exercise except the OLST. The balance ability between two groups was not significantly different.BR The result suggest that the more study is researched for effective balance exercise method in elderly, and the study is needed to investigate the long term effect of balance exercise method.