Influência do uso da realidade virtual no equilíbrio de idosos – uma revisão da literatura

Abstract

Brazil is going through changes in the demographic, population aging is a reality in our country. The degenerative diseases of aging can cause difficult to balance and functional impairment in the elderly. Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology that is being used as a therapeutic resource to train your balance. The aim of this study was to review the literature to determine the influence of the use of virtual reality in the balance of elderly. A search was conducted in the electronic databases Pedro, MEDLINE, LILACS, SciELO and Cochrane, using the following keywords: virtual reality, video game, computer game, Nintendo Wii, balance, elderly, aging, older people and their correlates in Portuguese. The literature search yielded a total of 18 articles were included only five of these met the criteria for inclusion (type of study, participants, interventions and outcomes). All articles analyzed showed positive effects on the balance of the elderly after the use of virtual reality. However, they showed great variability in the type of RV used, duration of interventions and instruments used to measure balance, making it difficult to compare their findings. Based on the smoothed articles in this review, the evidence that the RV is able to improve balance in the elderly are weak. However, the potential for virtual reality training has not been sufficiently explored. It requires the development of new clinical trials to improve the quality of information to clinical decision making.