ontrolled Whole Body Vibration to Decrease Fall Risk and mprove Health-Related Quality of Life of Nursing Home esidents

Objective: To investigate the effects of whole body vibraion in the elderly. Design: Randomized controlled trial. Setting: Nursing home. Participants: Forty-two elderly volunteers. Interventions: Six-week vibration intervention plus physial therapy (PT) (n 22) or PT alone (n 20). Main Outcome Measures: We assessed gait and body alance using the Tinetti test (maximum scores of 12 for gait, 6 for body balance, 28 for global score), motor capacity using he Timed Up & Go (TUG) test, and health-related quality of ife (HRQOL) using the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item hort-Form Health Survey (SF-36). Results: After 6 weeks, the vibration intervention group mproved by a mean standard deviation of 2.4 2.3 points on he gait score compared with no score change in the control roup (P .001). The intervention group improved by 3.5 2.1 oints on the body balance score compared with a decrease of .3 1.2 points in the control group (P .001). TUG test time ecreased by 11.0 8.6 seconds in the treated group compared ith an increase of 2.6 8.8 seconds in the control group P .001). The intervention group had significantly greater mprovements from baseline on 8 of 9 items on the SF-36 ompared with the control group. Conclusions: Controlled whole body vibration can improve lements of fall risk and HRQOL in elderly patients.