EFEITO DE UM PROTOCOLO BASEADO NO MÉTODO PILATES SOBRE O EQUILÍBRIO E RISCO DE QUEDAS EM IDOSAS DA COMUNIDADE: ensaio clínico

Abstract

Among the disorders caused by the aging process, the body balance can be affected, which provides great impacts on social autonomy, predisposing to falls and fractures, bringing about body immobility and fear of falling to the elderly. Among the proposals for intervention is the Pilates Method (PM) with the purpose of working and improving muscle strength, balance and posture. This study aimed to analyze the effect of a protocol based on MP on the balance and risk of falls in the elderly in the community. It was a randomized controlled clinical trial involving 29 elderly women, being randomly assigned to the control group (CG) (n = 15) and the experimental group (EG) (n = 14). All socio-demographic data were collected from all participants, then evaluated by the Timed up and Go (TUGT), Functional Reach Test (FRT) and Fall Effectiveness Scale (FES-I-BRASIL). After the evaluation, the EG received the intervention with the PM based protocol, at the end both groups were reevaluated. In this way, it was possible to verify improvements in the EG in all variables, in the TUGT presented a mean of improvement of 1.55 seconds, in the FRT a mean of 3.07 cm and in the FES-I-BRASIL a score reduction of 6, 85 points. Statistically, in the TUGT (p = 0.124) and FRT (p = 0.237) the results did not show significance, only FES-I-BRAZIL (p = 0.021). Therefore, in this study, the protocol used based on the PM presented favorable indications in the analyzed variables, both in the improvement of gait velocity, mobility and fear of falls. However, it is suggested that further investigations be conducted to affirm the efficacy of the PM based protocol for the elderly.