The effect of Task constraint manipulation on fear of falling, and balance in elder adults

Fear of falling in the elderly is one of the main concerns in this population. This condition causes negative outcomes including reduced daily productivity, reduced physical activities, and lower quality of life. Manipulating task constraints is one of the methods that seems to be effective in improving balance indicators and fear of falling in the elderly. Therefore, the current research intends to investigate the effect of manipulation of task constraints on the level of fear of falling and balance indicators of healthy elderly people. For this purpose, 30 healthy elderly were randomly selected and divided into two intervention and control groups. The intervention group carried out exercises to manipulate task constraints for 8 weeks and 3 times a week. The control group also continued their normal activities during the research period. The fear of falling was evaluated by the efficiency of falling questionnaire and the balance indicators using the standing and walking test. The results of the research showed that the application of the exercise protocol for manipulating task constraints reduced the fear of falling and improved balance indicators in the intervention group. The results of the analysis of covariance by removing the pre-test effect showed that both variables in the intervention group had a significant improvement compared to the control group (P<0.05). The results of this research show the effect of exercises with the manipulation of task constraints on reducing the fear of falling and improving the balance of the elderly.