Department of Physical Therapy Student Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Document Type

Dissertation - NSU Access Only

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Physical Therapy

Copyright Statement

All rights reserved. This publication is intended for use solely by faculty, students, and staff of Nova Southeastern University. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, now known or later developed, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author or the publisher.

First Advisor

Samuel Cheng

Date of original Performance / Presentation

January 2022

Publication Date / Copyright Date

1-1-2022

Abstract

Falls continue to be a major health issue when considering health risks for older individuals despite advances in medicine and rehabilitation. The multi-factorial nature of falls leads to an overwhelming number of causal factors, which can reduce the efficiency of interventions to reduce fall risk. Cervical joint position sense and joint position error could be additional factors that could influence the fall risk of older individuals. Developing an effective and efficient way for physical therapists to evaluate and treat cervical spine joint position error may assist to reduce falls in older individuals. This research examined the effects of a proprioceptive rehabilitation protocol for the cervical spine using a laser head in older community dwelling individuals. Sixty subjects were divided into an experimental and a control group. Control group subjects were given a general lower extremity strengthening home exercise program (HEP) to adhere to for 8 weeks. Experimental group subjects were given the same 8-week lower extremity HEP along with a defined cervical proprioceptive protocol utilizing a laser head light. All subjects were pre-tested and post-tested on several impairment and functional level measures. Data analysis indicated moderate to excellent reliability of the tool utilized to measure cervical joint position error. Cervical joint position error decreased more significantly in the experimental group indicating increased cervical joint position sense. Significant improvement was also observed on gait speed and timed up and go measures for the experimental group. Additional analysis revealed other significant positive effects in the experimental group including improved Berg balance scale scores, improved falls efficacy scale scoring, and reduction in forward head posture. The results of this research have not been demonstrated before with a proprioceptive protocol utilizing a laser headlight. The findings of this study have the potential to enable an additional training modality for older community dwelling adults who are displaying balance issues and who also have forward head posture or history of cervical trauma. Further research is recommended to explore the effects of medication usage on the proprioceptive training as well as to make the cervical proprioceptive program more accessible.

Disciplines

Physical Therapy

Keywords

Balance; Cervical; Geriatric; Laser; Proprioception; Protocol

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