The Effect of a 6-week Core Stability Exercises on the Risk of Falling and Quality of Life in Blind People

Visual impairment affects all movement aspects of children. Furthermore, moving, as the primary means of physical education, is essential for promoting health in disabled children. Therefore, the present study determined the effect of core stability exercises on the risk of falling and the quality of life in blind individuals.

In this quasi-experimental research, 30 blind male and female students were purposively selected and randomly divided into the experimental and control groups. After selecting the students and obtaining their consent to participate in the training program, Functional Reach Test (FRT) and 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey questionnaire (SF-36) were conducted before and after the intervention. The experimental group participated in a 6-week training program for three weekly 45-minute sessions. The obtained data were analyzed by univariate analysis to determine intergroup differences. Moreover, the Paired Samples t-test was applied to determine within-group differences at a significant level (α=0.05).

The achieved results suggested that after 6 weeks of training, there was a significant improvement in the risk of falling and the quality of life of the experimental group, compared to the pre-training scores of the core stability (P˂0.05); however, there was no significant change in the control group. The Independent Samples t-test revealed a significant difference between the control and experimental groups.

The core stability exercises affected the risk of falling as well as the quality of life in the studied blind individuals. Considering the importance of mobility, especially in children with visual impairments, it is recommended that core stability exercises be used as an effective method to maximize physical mobility in this group.