The Effect of Postural Strategies Training on the Balance of Women with Multiple Sclerosis

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of postural strategies training on the balance of women with Multiple Sclerosis. Thirty women with multiple sclerosis (mean age=41.4 ± 5.33) participated in this study. Participants were randomly divided into exercise and control groups. The training group performed practice for eight-week in accordance with the designed protocol, each week conclude three sessions. The control group continued its daily activities. To assess the balance of participants in the pre-test and post-test, functional balance test of Berg, TUG, and Sharpened Romberg test was used. The results showed that in the training group, the meantime of dynamic balance test in the post-test was significantly less than the control group (P=0.001). The dynamic balance test scores of the training group decreased in the post-test compared to the pretest (P=0.001), and the performance improved. There was no significant difference between the control group performance in the pretest and post-test stages (P>0.05). Static balance results also showed that the performance of the subjects in the training group was better than the control group (P=0.001). Also, the scores of functional balance tests in the training group were increased compared to the control group and performance improved (P=0.001). The score of functional balance test scores of the training group in the post-test was reduced to the pre-test and their performance improved. There is no difference between the control group performance in the pretest and posttest phases (P>0.05). The results revealed that eight weeks of postural strategies training improved static, dynamic, and functional balance. The reason for the improvement in the balance after this training seems to be due to an increase in muscle endurance, adaptation neuromuscular and reduction in muscle tension.