Using the Nintendo Wii as an intervention for elderly fallers

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  The effectiveness of using the Nintendo Wii as rehabilitation tool in elderly fallers: A pilot study

• IRAS ID

  152197

• Contact name

  Murray Griffin

• Contact email

  mgriffin@essex.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Essex

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 3 months, 31 days

• Research summary

  There were 647721 A&E attendances and 204424 admissions to hospital for fall related injuries in people over the age of 60 years in 2000 (Schuffham et al., 2003). The cost of these falls to the NHS is approximately £980 million per annum. For north Essex (the area where this research will take place) the cost of falls is approximately £5 million per annum (Nagaraj 2007). To combat recurrent falls Colchester Hospital University Trust (CHUFT) runs a falls clinic, which is run by a multi-­professional team. The training lasts for 9 weeks (1 hour session per week), it is patient specific and it aims, among other things, to improve balance. The training commonly incorporates the use of the Nintendo Wii­Fit™. A previous study was undertaken using the Wii as a training tool for fallers attending hospital as outpatients primarily to assess its safety. This project will test the effectiveness of the Wii in patients' homes. Undertaking supervised training in the home will reduce the burden placed upon patients by requiring them to come to the hospital for an extra training session. This will also enable to intervention to be made available to a broader cohort.
  There will be three groups
  • Group A will be given physiotherapy falls training at the hospital (‘hospital only group’ ).
  • Group B will be given extra Wii balance training by a physiotherapist/physiotherapist assistants (‘ Wii group’).
  • Group C will be an extension of the current hospital training with physiotherapy staff supervising, correcting and progressing patients (‘non­-Wii group’)
  The extra training for groups B and C will consist of 20­-45 min supervised training twice per week in the patient's home.
  We will then compare functional mobility and psychological wellbeing of these patients before and after training

• REC name

  East of England - Essex Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  14/EE/1182

• Date of REC Opinion

  12 Dec 2014

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion