Zeinab Raoofi - MSc in Physiotherapy

Background: One of the most important causes of disability, injury and death in the elderly is falling. Increasing age causes disturbances in the physiological function of different parts of the body, including reduced physical activity. Reducing physical activity leads to reduced ability to maintain balance and physical fitness, thereby increasing the likelihood of falling in these individuals. Falling off will have a lot of financial and physical consequences for these people. Regarding the fact that physical loss of fitness and balance is an inevitable consequence of aging, both resistance training and walking training are recommended for the elderly. Since resistance training in the elderly may result in muscle damage, the use of hydrotherapy that uses water resistance to strengthen muscle has been increasing recently. The purpose of this review study is to provide evidence of the effect of hydrotherapy on balance and falling in elderly people.Materials and Methods: A review study was conducted in the Pub Med, Springer link, OVID, Google Scholar, Science Direct databases for papers published between 2000 and 2018 using the keywords: Elderly, Hydrotherapy, Falls, Water Exercise, Balance.Results: 47 articles related to the topic were found, of which 14 were selected - which had criteria for entry. In these studies, differences were found in the methodology and tools used.Conclusion: The results of this review study showed that hydrotherapy is effective in improving walking ability and balance and lowering the risk of falling. Hydrotherapy can therefore be proposed as an effective method to reduce the risk of falling and improve the quality of life of the elderly. However, more studies are needed to determine a unit hydrotherapy exercise program.

Elderly, Hydrotherapy, Falls, Water Exercise, Balance