Introduction: Elderly individuals often experience loss of confidence, gait abnormalities, and impaired balance, which can lead to fear of falling and limitations in functional mobility. Lee Silverman Voice Treatment-BIG (LSVT-BIG) addresses balance and activities of daily living (ADLs) in individuals with Parkinson’s disease by training them to increase the amplitude of movements from head to toe. It targets functional mobility through “functional component movements,” in which a specific task is selected and the individual is trained to perform it with large-amplitude movements and then apply it to real-life activities. LSVT-BIG has been shown to improve balance and mobility in Parkinson’s disease, which are also features of the "ageing syndrome." Hence, this study aims to explore its role in the geriatric population, compared with traditional balance training methods, through tele-rehabilitation for balance and functional mobility. Materials and methods: This comparative study was conducted on 34 community-dwelling elderly participants in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Participants were screened based on the inclusion criteria and allocated into two equal groups. Group A (n = 17) received the LSVT-BIG protocol, while Group B (n = 17) received conventional balance training. Both interventions were delivered via tele-rehabilitation for four consecutive days per week over a period of four weeks. Pre- and post-intervention assessments were performed using the Mini-Balance Evaluation Systems Test (Mini-BESTest) to assess balance and the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test to assess functional mobility. Results: Intra-group analysis showed a statistically significant difference between pre- and post-intervention values for both the Mini-BESTest and TUG in both groups (p < 0.0001). There was no statistically significant difference between Groups A and B in Mini-BESTest scores (p = 0.2622). However, a statistically significant difference was observed between the TUG scores of Groups A and B (p = 0.0066). Conclusion: Both LSVT-BIG and conventional balance training delivered through tele-rehabilitation significantly improved balance and functional mobility in the elderly population. Compared to conventional balance training, LSVT-BIG demonstrated superior improvement in functional mobility.
Chavan et al. (Fri,) studied this question.