• Nimmi Kp, Anjupriya D, Alvina Nawed, Shibili Nuhmani, Masood Khan, and Ahmad H Alghadir.
• Department of Physiotherapy, AWH Special College, Calicut, Kerala, India.
• Medicine (Baltimore). 2024 Jun 7; 103 (23): e38345e38345.

BackgroundFall occurrences and the associated risk of injury are debilitating and major health concerns in the older population. Several interventions have been investigated and implemented to address the needs of balance impairments and to reduce the increased risk of falls. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of the Otago exercise program (OEP) and gaze stability exercises (GSE) on balance and the risk of falls in older adults residing at an old age home facility.MethodsThirty elderly participants were equally and randomly divided into 2 groups: Group OEP received the OEP, and group GSE received GSE for 8 weeks (thrice a week). In addition, both groups also performed core muscle-strengthening exercises. The outcome measures were the Berg balance scale (BBS) and the Fall efficacy scale-International (FES-I).ResultsThe interventions resulted in significant improvements (P < .001) in both outcome measures in both groups. The mean pretest BBS scores of groups OEP and GSE increased from 40.4 and 39.2 to the mean post-test scores of 48 and 45.2, respectively. Similarly, the mean pretest FES-I scores of groups OEP and GSE also improved from 39.47 and 40.4 to the mean post-test scores of 32.73 and 36.07. The between-group comparison showed greater improvement (P < .05) in OEP group in both variables.ConclusionsOEP and GSE were found to be beneficial rehabilitation programs in improving balance and fear of falls in healthy older adults. However, the OEP was found to be a more effective intervention and may allow better balance and fall prevention improvements.Trial RegistrationThe study has been registered in clinicaltrials.gov (ID: NCT05781776; on 23/03/2023).Copyright © 2024 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

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