UTILIZAÇÃO DA WIITERAPIA COMO FERRAMENTA FISIOTERAPÊUTICA PARA O TREINAMENTO DO EQUILÍBRIO EM IDOSOS ATIVOS DA COMUNIDADE: REVISÃO INTEGRATIVA

Abstract

The aging of the world population brings with it a series of challenges for the scientific community to maintain the quality of life of the elderly. Characterized by the decline of the various physiological systems of the body, aging leads to a series of functional changes, and some of these changes favor the occurrence of falls. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the Nintendo Wii associated with the Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus games as a therapeutic tool in balance training in healthy elderly people in the community. This is an integrative review carried out by searching for articles available electronically in PubMed, Scielo, Cochrane and PEDro databases using the keywords “Wii”, “Balance”, “Older Adults” and “Elderly” with the use of Boolean operators. A total of 205 articles were found, of which 7 were selected to compose the review. The Nintendo Wii proves to be an effective approach within the existing physiotherapeutic resources for the prevention of falls, balance training and correction of postural changes caused by aging, however, further studies on the subject are needed to compare different games and varied protocols of intensity, frequency and duration of sessions. A possible way to follow in future studies is to evaluate the effectiveness of the games in the Wii Fit Plus package individually and to evaluate the dose-response effects, in order to develop individualized and more efficient treatment plans.