A Pilot Study of the Wii Fit as a Low-Cost Virtual Reality System to Evaluate Balance Ability in Older Adults

Accidental falls in older adults are highly prevalent and a major source of morbidity. Over 30% of people aged 65 or older fall each year with about half of these cases being recurrent. Falls may result in head trauma, bone fractures, and even death and are leading cause of both nonfatal and fatal injuries in older adults. Falls are also costly. An estimate $20 billion dollars annually has been spent on hip fractures associated with falls; this amount is projected to rise in the next decade. Risk factors for falls in the elderly are usually multi-factorial. These include increasing age, environmental factors, acute or chronic illness, medication use, cognitive impairment, sensory deficits, and balance and gait impairment.

The Nintendo Wii Fit system is engaging, low-cost, and standardized and may be a feasible exercise modality to improve balance in the elderly. While virtual reality use in a research context is not new, few studies of commercially available low-cost video games with virtual reality capabilities have been done. These have demonstrated encouraging results, indicating a potential use for rehabilitation in both children and adults.

Twenty ambulatory older individuals age 60 and older who reside in the community will be recruited to participate in this study.This group of participants will be selected to represent the general community dwelling older adults as much as possible. They will demonstrate a wide range of ability in terms of their balance and mobility in which some are healthy (non-fallers), some with risks of falling, and some fallers. Efforts will be made to have equal distribution among these three groups.

Subjects will be consented for the research study and we will ask questions about age, gender, educational background, medical history, and any falls in past year. They will also be evaluated clinically before the actual study to assess vision, cognitive status, and balance.

Qualified subjects will be randomized into two study groups where one group will begin the study with Wii Fit testing followed by NeuroCom EquiTest evaluation and the other group in reversed order. This counterbalancing between subjects is designed to negate any potential order effect. Balance data collected from the NeuroCom EquiTest will be compared to the performance scores obtained from playing the two Wii Fit balance games to determine whether the performance scores on the two Wii Fit balance games are indicative of the participants' balance ability.All study interventions are completed in a 1 day session.