Effect of Mental Practice on Static and Dynamic Balance in the Community-Dwelling Elderly

This experimental field study examined the potential usefulness of mental practice for improving physical performance in health care. This main purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of an 8-week trial of mental practice of motor imagery on static and dynamic balance in community-dwelling elderly. 80 elderly females were recruited from a gymnasium and randomly assigned 2 groups. The experimental group received 20 minutes of mental practice of motor imagery. The study lasted for 4 month, 32 intervention sessions, with each intervention session lasting for 45 minutes. Pretest-Posttest outcome measures included the timed up and down stair. Independent t- test for both dynamic and static balance were significant (respectively: p= 0.001, p=0.01). Our study concludes that mental practice may hence be an important therapeutic tool to improve both static and dynamic balance in elderly.