A CORRELATIONAL STUDY OF BALANCE WITH FUNCTIONAL INDEPENDENCE AND COGNITION IN GERIATRIC POPULATION

Background and objective of the study: The presence of balance disturbances need to be examined in old age home-dwelling elderly because many studies have been done on community-dwelling elderly. Hence, there is a need of examining the balance disturbances in old age home-dwelling elderly depending on their physical function, cognitive function, and functional independence. Therefore, the objective of this study is to assess the correlation of balance with cognitive functions and with functional independence. Methodology: This was a correlation study design in which 60 elderly (age>65 years) were recruited from SGT Hospital Gurugram, India. The Tinetti Test (TT) was utilized to assess patients' capacity to walk and maintain balance. The TT enables the division of patients into three groups depending on the level of their dependence and the risk of falls. The group at the highest risk obtains the lowest scores (≤18). The group at moderate risk consists of people with scores of 19–23 points, which reflects moderate dependence and fall risk. The group at minimal risk is the one with scores of ≥24 points. For TT, there were components where the elderly individual was asked to sit, stand and walk where the quality of these movements were observed accordingly. Results and discussion: At baseline, data was found to be non-significant. After the analysis of the data, it was found that there was a fair correlation between balance and functional independence. Although there was no correlation found between balance and cognitive functions.  Article visualizations

A CORRELATIONAL STUDY OF BALANCE WITH FUNCTIONAL INDEPENDENCE AND COGNITION IN GERIATRIC POPULATION

Background and objective of the study: The presence of balance disturbances need to be examined in old age home-dwelling elderly because many studies have been done on community-dwelling elderly. Hence, there is a need of examining the balance disturbances in old age home-dwelling elderly depending on their physical function, cognitive function, and functional independence. Therefore, the objective of this study is to assess the correlation of balance with cognitive functions and with functional independence. Methodology: This was a correlation study design in which 60 elderly (age>65 years) were recruited from SGT Hospital Gurugram, India. The Tinetti Test (TT) was utilized to assess patients' capacity to walk and maintain balance. The TT enables the division of patients into three groups depending on the level of their dependence and the risk of falls. The group at the highest risk obtains the lowest scores (≤18). The group at moderate risk consists of people with scores of 19–23 points, which reflects moderate dependence and fall risk. The group at minimal risk is the one with scores of ≥24 points. For TT, there were components where the elderly individual was asked to sit, stand and walk where the quality of these movements were observed accordingly. Results and discussion: At baseline, data was found to be non-significant. After the analysis of the data, it was found that there was a fair correlation between balance and functional independence. Although there was no correlation found between balance and cognitive functions