Comparision the Effects of Exercise in Shallow and Deep Water on Risk of falling and Quality of life in Elderly Women with KneeOsteoarthritis

According to W.H.O statistics, the prevalence of knee osteoarthritis in Iranian elderly women is abou ۴۰%. Knee osteoarthritis is accompanied by decrease in balance and quality of life, increase in falling risk and pain in the knee. The Purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of water exercise in two different depths of water on the risk of falling and quality of life in elderly women with chronic knee Osteoarthritis.۴۵ elderly women aged over ۵۵ years by paird random and based on pain of the knee allocated in three homogeneous groups: ۱) shallow water exercise group, ۲) deep water exercise group, and ۳) control group. The exercise intervention includes a ۱۲ weeks period of one hour exercise sessions which was repeated three times in per week. Balance, risk of fall, pain and quality of life were evaluated using Romber test, Berg scale and KOOS questionnaire respectively. Finally, data from ۴۳ people at pre-test and post-test were analyzed by using two factor repeated measure ANOVAs at p<۰.۰۵ significance level.Results showed that balance, risk of fall, pain and quality of life in the shallow and deep water exercise groups improve significantly compared with the control group. While, the improvement of these variables in the shallow water exercise group were significantly more than the deep water exercise group.Findings of this study suggest that physical exercise in the water has positive effects on balance, risk of fall, pain and quality of life in elderly women with chronic knee OA. Exercise efficacy in shallow water is more than deep water.

کلیدواژه ها:

Knee OA ، water exercise ، depth ، Risk of Falling ، quality of life