Evaluating the effectiveness of mindfulness exercise on cognitive empowerment and balance in the elderly with history of falling

Subject Areas : Sports Science and Healthy

somaye talighi ¹ , negar arazeshi ² , keyvan mollanorozy ³ , مرضیه بلالی ⁴

1 - Department of motor Behavior, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
2 - Assistant Professor of Physical Education & sport Science, Almahdi mehr Isfahan Higher Education institute, Isfahan, Iran.
3 - Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
4 - استادیار دانشکده تربیت بدنی دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی تهران مرکزی، تهران، ایران

Received: 2024-10-05 Accepted : 2024-11-03 Published : 2025-01-15

Keywords: Mindfulness, cognitive empowerment, balance, Aging, history of falling,

Abstract :

The risk of tripping or falling is one of the common problems among the elderly؛ Cognitive

 

behavioral interventions have been widely used and have shown effectiveness in

 

improving cognitive and motor performance in different populations. The aim of

 

the study was to determine the effectiveness of mindfulness on

 

cognitive empowerment and Balance of the elderly with

 

history of falling. In a semi-experimental trial, 16 elderly people with a

 

history of falling (mean age 72±6 years) from Qom city in 1402 were selected in

 

an accessible and purposeful manner and were randomly assigned to two groups of

 

mindfulness exercises (8people) and control (8 people). In this research, Di Petrillo, Kaufman, Glass, and Arenkov (2009) mindfulness intervention protocol

 

was taught in six sessions for 1 to 1.5 hours during three

 

weeks.In order to check the data of cognitive empowerment, Spritzer's

 

psychological empowerment scale (1995) was used and to check the balance

 

function, the stork static balance tests of Johnson and Nelson, 1991 and the

 

dynamic balance tests of Podcialdo and Richardson, 1991 were used. The data

 

were analyzed using covariance analysis at the P<0.05. The

 

results showed that mindfulness exercises improved non-significant static and

 

dynamic balance and non-significant improvement of

 

cognitive empowerment in elderly people with a history of falling (p<0.05).

 

It seems that three weeks of mindfulness exercises can

 

bring cognitive and motor benefits for elderly people with a history of falls,

however, longer periods of this intervention may be more effective

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