Speech therapy acute accent s intervention for falling prevention in aging

Purpose: to verify the effectiveness of a Speech Therapy intervention program to decrease the risk of falls in elderly people. Methods: Exploratory and intervention study where upon 148 volunteers from community, both genders, with an average of 68.6(+/- 6.5) years were submitted to the Dynamic Gait Index (DGI)- Brazilian brief and the Timed Up and Go (TUG). Volunteers with or without potential risk for falling were invited to participate in a 50-minutes long intervention program carried out for five consecutive weeks, based on Cawthorne and Cooksey exercises. Seventy-two volunteers 68.1(+/- 6.5) years presented in at least three meeting, were reassessed. The results were analyzed by Wilcoxon, Chi-square, Spearman and Correlation Matrix tests, with p<5.0%. Results: Thirty-seven (25.0%) and 106 (71.6%) participants presented, respectively, risks for falls in the DGI-Brazilian brief and TUG. There was negative correlation between the DGI-Brazilian brief (p=0.034) and positive with the TUG (p=0.0071) with age and both instruments (p=0.00000016). Through the comparison the initial and final data a positive correlation was found for the DGI-Brazilian brief and for TUG in the Chi-square test and by Wilcoxon's. Better performance was observed in both tests after the intervention. Conclusion: The intervention was effective in decreasing the risk for falls and improving gait performance, and functional and dynamic balance.