The effect of the indoor rock climbing workout with and without environmental Affordances on balance and Fear of falling in the the elderly population

Background : lack of balance and fear of falling in elderly people can lead to disruption in daily activities, falls and finally decrease the quality of life; Therefore, it is of great importance to use up-to-date and attractive exercises such as rock climbing that can be effective in improving balance and reducing the fear of falling in the elderly. This study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of indoor rock climbing exercises with and without environmental affordance on balance and fear of falling in the elderly. Materials and Methods: This semi-experimental research was conducted on 36 elderly people (age range 65-75) who were randomly divided into three groups of 12 people. The participants in two experimental groups received interventional rock climbing exercises with and without the provision of tools (educational and motivational instructions of the instructor, feedback, guidance, etc.) in the form of two 40-minute sessions per week for eight weeks. On the other hand, the people of the control group did not receive any training and did normal daily tasks. Three groups of subjects completed two questionnaires of leaves and fear of falling at two pre-test and post-test times. Paired t-test was used to examine intra-group changes and analysis of covariance was used to compare between groups. Findings: The results showed that indoor rock climbing with and without affordance caused a significant increase in balance scores (P=0.0005) and a decrease in the fear of falling (P=0.0005) in the post-test compared to the pre-test. was tested; Also, the balance scores of the group affordance were higher than the group without tools (P=0.012). While the scores of fear of falling in the group provided with tools were lower than the group without tools provided (P=0.033). Conclusion: The use of rock climbing exercises as a pastime for the elderly can have a positive effect on increasing balance and reducing the fear of falling in the elderly, and in future research, these two methods can be used for the psychological and physical factors of the elderly.