Efeitos do treino de dupla tarefa no equilíbrio do idoso: uma revisão da literatura

Abstract

Introduction: Aging is associated with a wide range of physical and mental declines. Compared to younger people, older adults are at greater risk of experiencing balance changes. The act of carrying out a primary activity, where the individual is maintaining the main focus of their attention, incorporated into a secondary activity performed simultaneously is called dual tasking. Performing two simultaneous tasks is common in everyday life and represents a highly advantageous ability for the individual, and can be considered a prerequisite for a normal life. Many falls in the elderly occur while performing dual tasks and as these are frequently performed in our daily lives, it is necessary to investigate the results of training these tasks with the aim of improving the elderly's balance. Objective: analyze the effect of dual-task training on improving balance in elderly people through a literature review. Methods: The methodology used in this work is the narrative literature review. Searches were carried out in the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro), Medical Literature Analysis and Retrievel System Online (MEDLINE) (via PubMed) and Scientific Electronic Library Online (SCIELO), with dates limited to the last 10 years, between 2013 and 2023. Results: Of the studies included, four evaluated the effects of dual-task cognitive training on balance and one study investigated the effect of dance, a physical exercise with additional cognitive load, on the dynamic stability of elderly people. All studies evaluated the effect of training on participants' balance. Conclusion: Dual-task training is effective in improving balance in the elderly population, but only one study in this review demonstrated the superiority of dual-task training in balance. Therefore, it is concluded that dual-task and conventional balance training both present a good result when applied as a way to improve balance in the elderly.