Immediate effects of cold on balance and proprioception in Thai healthy older adults
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Abstract
Background: Cold has been commonly used to treat musculoskeletal injuries, especially in acute stage. However, there were some studies demonstrated that cold is temporarily affected on decreasing balance and proprioceptive performance in young adults which contribute to falling.
Objectives: To compare immediate effects of cold pack application and ice-water immersion on balance and proprioception in Thai healthy older adults.
Materials and methods: Fifty older adults were randomly assigned into 2 groups: cold pack group (n=25; mean age 68.80±6.09 years; 5 males; 20 females) and ice-water immersion group (n=25; mean age 69.65±5.90 years; 8 males; 17 females). All participants were seated on chair and received cold application over 15 minutes. At pre-and post-cooling, all participants were evaluated for their proprioception, static and dynamic balance by ankle joint position test, single leg stance test, and tandem walk test, respectively. Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to compare the differences of each outcome variable between pre- and post-cooling within group. Significance level was set at p<0.05.
Results: At post-cooling, the ice-water immersion group demonstrated a significant decrease in single leg stance time and increase in the number of missteps in tandem walk test compared to pre-cooling (p<0.05). The cold pack group showed a significant decrease in tandem walk test time at post-cooling compared to pre-cooling (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Applying cold pack did not effect on any outcome variables. Static and dynamic balance in Thai older adults was compromised after applying ice-water immersion. Fall risk cautions in Thai older adults should be taken when resuming an activity immediately such as walking and exercising after applying ice-water immersion on the ankle.
Journal of Associated Medical Sciences 2017; 50(2): 217-226. Doi: 10.14456/jams.2017.21
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Personal views expressed by the contributors in their articles are not necessarily those of the Journal of Associated Medical Sciences, Faculty of Associated Medical Sciences, Chiang Mai University.
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