The chronic effect of passive Whole Body Vibration on executive functioning

Jong, C. de (2013) The chronic effect of passive Whole Body Vibration on executive functioning. thesis, Human Movement Sciences.

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Abstract

Background: The rapidly aging of the population leads to an increase in the number of people who experience a decline in cognitive functioning. Numerous of studies revealed an agerelated decline in executive functioning which is a domain of cognitive functioning. Exercise is generally accepted to be effective for the prevention of a decrease in executive functioning in elderly. Unfortunately, elderly who have difficulty with performing body movements cannot fully benefit from the positive effects of normal exercise on executive functions. A convenient training method for this elderly population may be Whole Body Vibration. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the effect of WBV on the executive functions. Method: The design of this study was a randomized controlled trial. All subjects (n = 7; mean age 46.7 ± 11.8) were healthy females and working as physiotherapists in a nursing home. The WBV intervention had a duration of four weeks with four sessions per week. Each session consisted of four minutes WBV. The Stroop test, the Trail Making test and the Digit Span test were assessed at pre-test, post-test and two follow-up tests. Results: Gain scores were used to compare the intervention- and control-group. The intervention group improved significantly stronger on the interference task of the Stroop test ( + 17.6%) compared to the control group (+2.9%). On the TMT-A test the intervention group improved also stronger (+ 16.4%) compared to the control group (-8.1 %). However, this difference did not reach statistical significance (p >.05). Conclusions: The results prove partially preliminary support for our hypothesis that participants who received WBV therapy score better on executive function tests than participants that not received WBV therapy. The positive results in this study give support for future research to examine the chronic effect of WBV on executive functions. Future research projects are recommended to investigate the chronic effect of WBV on executive functions in sedentary vulnerable older people.

Item Type:	Thesis (Thesis)
Supervisor name:	Heuvelen, dr. M.J.G. van (Human Movement Sciences) and Center for Human Movement Sciences (UMCG), University of
Faculty:	Medical Sciences
Date Deposited:	25 Jun 2020 11:00
Last Modified:	25 Jun 2020 11:00
URI:	https://umcg.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/2066

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