Keizo Sato^*, Kaoru Kuroki, Syuko Saiki, Ryoichi Nagatomi

Show more
Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of health Sciences, Tohoku Fukushi University, Sendai, Japan.
Department of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan.
Show less

Abstract: Purpose: Elderly persons may benefit from regular physical exercise to maintain or improve their quality of life and health status. Low adherence to physical exercise, however, is often a problem. A new type of videogames, “exergames”, involving physical motion of the players has recently been developed and is expected to keep elderly people active. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of a newly developed exergame on health benefits such as muscle strength and body balance of elderly people. Methods: We invited 24 healthy community-dwelling elderly persons aged 71.46 ± 4.8 years old (8 men and 16 women) volunteered for this study. We developed a new exergame program for using KinectTM (Microsoft Co., Ltd. Redmond, WA) motion sensor. A single exergame session lasted approximately 30 minutes including warm-up and cool-down sessions. The participants are asked to play the exergame 2 - 3 times per week for 2.5 months at our institute. Maximal isometric muscular strength of major muscles of lower extremities and functional balance were examined before and after the exergame intervention. Result: All participants completed 24 sessions of the exergame program. There were significant improvements in maximal isometric muscular strength of hip joint flexion, and knee joint extension and flexion, of ankle joint dorsiflexion. Also MFC, a significant difference was noted between Pre and Post values. However, there was no statistically significant improvement in the functional balance test. Conclusion: Exergame developed in this study was found to be effective in improving muscular strength of lower extremities.

Keywords: Exergame; Kinect; Elderly; Muscle Strength; Minimum Foot Clearance

Cite this paper: Sato, K. , Kuroki, K. , Saiki, S. and Nagatomi, R. (2014) The effects of exercise intervention using Kinect^TM on healthy elderly individuals: A quasi-experimental study. Open Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation, 2, 38-44. doi: 10.4236/ojtr.2014.21008.

References

[1]   Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (2012) Annual Health, Labour and Welfare Report 2011-2012. Gyosei Corp., Tokyo.

[2]   American College of Sports Medicine Position Stand on Osteoporosis and Exercise (1995) Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 27, 1-7.

[3]   Flores, E., et al. (2008) Improving patient motivation in game development for motor deficit rehabilitation. In: Proceedings of the 2008 International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology, Yokohama, ACM, 381-384.

[4]   Osorio, G., Moffat, D.C. and Sykes, J. (2012) Exergaming, exercise, and gaming: Sharing motivations. Games for Health Journal, 1, 205-210. http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/g4h.2011.0025

[5]   Henderson, A., Korner-Bitensky, N. and Levin, M. (2007) Virtual reality in stroke rehabilitation: A systematic review of its effectiveness for upper limb motor recovery. Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation, 14, 52-61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1310/tsr1402-52

[6]   Joo, L.Y., et al. (2010) A feasibility study using interactive commercial off-the-shelf computer gaming in upper limb rehabilitation in patients after stroke. Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 42, 437-441. http://dx.doi.org/10.2340/16501977-0528

[7]   Saposnik, G., et al. (2010) Effectiveness of virtual reality exercises in stroke rehabilitation (EVREST): Rationale, design, and protocol of a pilot randomized clinical trial assessing the Wii gaming system. International Journal of Stroke, 5, 47-51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-4949.2009.00404.x

[8]   Herrera, C., et al. (2012) Positive effects of computer-based cognitive training in adults with mild cognitive impairment. Neuropsychologia, 50, 1871-1881. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.04.012

[9]   Zaccarelli, C., et al. (2013) Computer-based cognitive intervention for dementia. Sociable: Motivating platform for elderly networking, mental reinforcement and social interaction. In: Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, ICST (Institute for Computer Sciences, Social- Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering), Venice.
http://dx.doi.org/10.4108/icst.pervasivehealth.2013.252155

[10]   Duncan, P.W., et al. (1990) Functional reach: A new clinical measure of balance. Journal of Gerontology, 45, M192-M197. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geronj/45.6.M192

[11]   Vellas, B.J., et al. (1997) One-leg standing balance and functional status in a population of 512 community-living elderly persons. Aging Clinical and Experimental Research, 9, 95-98.

[12]   Begg, R., et al. (2007) Minimum foot clearance during walking: Strategies for the minimisation of trip-related falls. Gait & Posture, 25, 191-198. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gaitpost.2006.03.008

[13]   Barrett, R.S., Mills, P.M. and Begg, R.K. (2010) A systematic review of the effect of ageing and falls history on minimum foot clearance characteristics during level walking. Gait & Posture, 32, 429-435. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gaitpost.2010.07.010

[14]   Begg, R., et al. (2007) Minimum foot clearance during walking: strategies for the minimisation of trip-related falls. Gait Posture, 25, 191-198. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gaitpost.2006.03.008

[15]   Mills, P.M., Barrett, R.S. and Morrison, S. (2008) Toe clearance variability during walking in young and elderly men. Gait & Posture, 28, 101-107. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gaitpost.2007.10.006

[16]   Chiba, H., et al. (2005) Differential gait kinematics between fallers and non-fallers in community-dwelling elderly people. Geriatrics & Gerontology International, 5, 127-134. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1447-0594.2005.00281.x

[17]   Kinugasa, T. and Nagasaki, H. (1998) Reliability and validity of the motor fitness scale for older adults in the community. Aging (Milano), 10, 295-302.

[18]   Cherniack, E.P. (2011) Not just fun and games: Applications of virtual reality in the identification and rehabilitation of cognitive disorders of the elderly. Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology, 6, 283-289. http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/17483107.2010.542570

[19]   Anderson-Hanley, C., et al. (2012) Exergaming and older adult cognition: A cluster randomized clinical trial. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 42, 109-119. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2011.10.016

[20]   Jorgensen, M.G., et al. (2013) Efficacy of Nintendo Wii training on mechanical leg muscle function and postural balance in community-dwelling older adults: A randomized controlled trial. The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 68, 845-852.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gerona/gls222

[21]   Warburton, D.E.R., et al. (2007) The health benefits of interactive video game exercise. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 32, 655-663. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/H07-038

[22]   Gerling, K.M., Schulte, F.P. and Masuch, M. (2011) Designing and evaluating digital games for frail elderly persons. In: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology, Lisbon, ACM, 1-8.

[23]   Andersson, E.A., Nilsson, J. and Thorstensson, A. (1997) Intramuscular EMG from the hip flexor muscles during human locomotion. Acta Physiologica Scandinavica, 161, 361-370.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-201X.1997.00225.x

[24]   Pijnappels, M., Bobbert, M.F. and Van Dieën, J.H. (2006) EMG modulation in anticipation of a possible trip during walking in young and older adults. Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology, 16, 137-143. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jelekin.2005.06.011

[25]   Bateni, H. (2012) Changes in balance in older adults based on use of physical therapy vs the Wii Fit gaming system: A preliminary study. Physiotherapy, 98, 211-216. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physio.2011.02.004