The Effectiveness of Gaze Stability Exercises on Balance and Executive Functions in the Elderly with Mild Cognitive Impairment

Cognitive ageing is associated with disruption in higher-level executive functions, because it can impair the abilities needed to perform these functions. One of the common cognitive impairments among the elderly is the mild cognitive impairment (MCI), characterized by a higher than normal level of cognitive decline. Therefore, the current study aims to investigate the ‎the effectiveness of gaze stability exercises on balance and executive functions in the elderly suffering from MCI. This was a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest-control group design. The statistical population of this study consisted of all the elderly with MCI living in Urmia in 2020. The sample included 30 elderly aged 60 to 80 years with MCI, who were selected using convenience randomly and based on the inclusion criteria and assigned randomly into two groups of experimental (mean age: ‌78/466±1/552 years) and control (mean age:76/93±2.404 years) with 15 memebers in each group. Participants of both groups performed Mathias et al’s Timed Up and Go (TUG), Hoffman’s Go/NoGo test and Kirchner’s N-Back Test for their balance, inhibitory control and working memory to be evaluated in pre-test and post-test. ‎The experimental group performed Morimoto et al.’s gaze stabilization exercises in three 60-minute sessions a week for eight weeks. The data were analyzed using the Analyze of Covariance (ANCOVA) in SPSS-24 software. The results indicated that after controlling the pretest scores, there was a statistically significant difference in TUG, behavioral inhibition control and working memory ‌between the control and experimental groups (p=0.001). Therefore, performing these exercises can be an effective strategy to improve balance and executive functioning abilities in the elderly suffering from MCI.