Efectos de la terapia de gamificación en la mejora del balance en personas mayores con artrosis de rodilla y cadera en la comuna de Renca

Abstract

The risk of falls in older people has been increasing in recent years, which is caused by multiple external and internal factors of the person such as medication intake, strength, balance, environment in which they operate, among others. In this study, emphasis was placed on balance, which corresponds to a motor response coordinated by the somatosensory system, motor planning and execution, and the effect of inertial forces. There are two types of balance: the static balance; which is the ability to maintain postural control in a static position, while dynamic balance is the maintenance of postural control during movement such as walking. To manage the loss and/or decrease in balance in people, various therapeutic options are proposed. For this study, it was proposed to apply a gamification therapy, which corresponds to the use of movement systems through the use of video game consoles (Al-Rayes, S., et al. 2022), such as the Xbox Kinect® system. To carry out this study, the main objective was to determine the effect of gamification on people residing in Renca who suffer from hip and/or knee osteoarthritis. The treatment plan was formulated by selecting one of the appropriate programs for the intervention and whether it is effective in improving static and dynamic balance. This is because Osteoarthritis presents the alteration of joint dynamics in conjunction with neuromuscular dynamics and consequently, the loss of balance globally. (Negrin, V et al. 2014). To do this, a total of 7 elderly people who are cared for in rehabilitation centers in the commune of Renca, between 60 and 80 years of age, were recruited, who were selected according to inclusion and/or exclusion criteria, which were subsequently assigned through the adaptive assignment method to the groups under study: gamification and control group. Then the Time up and go test and the Romberg Test were applied, where the dynamic and static balance was evaluated respectively, before and after the intervention with gamification in order to compare the values with the control group. In this case, a non-randomized, prospective, correlational, quantitative, analytical and longitudinal controlled clinical trial type study was carried out. After the intervention was carried out, it was determined that it did not produce improvements compared to the control group, for the sample studied. Despite this, it is expected that in the future the line of research associated with gamification will be expanded in depth with more video game devices to obtain more conclusive results.