The Effect of 12 Weeks of Training Pilates on Balance and Fatigue in Women with Multiple Sclerosis

Introduction and Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic and debilitating disease it which myelin of the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) was damaged. Most common symptoms of MS are imbalance, fatigue, cramps and shaking. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of 12 weeks of training Pilates on static and dynamic balance and fatigue in women with multiple sclerosis.
Material and This study was semi-experimental and practical. It conducted with field style and pre-post test design. A total of 24 women 20 to 50 years old with MS by convinience sampling had been selected and randomly assigned into two experimental and control group. Static and dynamic balancing devices used to measure balance and fatigue questionnaires used to measure fatigue participants. The experimental group received 12 weeks of training Pilates while the control group did not do any exercise. Analyzing the data was done by using one-way and mixed repeated measure ANOVAs, also t-test and post hoc test with justifing of alpha coefficient at significantly lavel 0.05with SPSS22.
The results showed that the experimental group in compared to the control group performed better in balance and fatigue tests.
It was indicated that Pilates’ exercises can improve balance and fatigue in patients with MS. Therfore, it can suggest to experts to use this kind of training as a complementary therapy along with drug treatments for patients with MS.