Effect of vestibular stimulation on balance in obese children / Ahmed Hussien Mustafa Mashaal ; Supervised Emam Hassan Elnegmy , Hoda Abdelazim Altalawy , Suzette Ibrahim Helal

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Physical Therapy - Department of Growth and Development Disorders in Paediatrics

Aim: To investigate the effect of vestibular stimulation on balance in obese children. Subject and Methods: Fifty obese children of both genders with age ranging from 6 to 10 years participated in this study. They were selected from outpatient clinic, center of clinical research excellence, National research Center. They were allocated randomly into two groups of equal numbers, control and study groups. Children in both groups received treadmill gait training for 45 minutes. Moreover, children in control group received a designed balance exercises for 60 minutes. While those in the study group received vestibular stimulation exercises for 20 minutes in addition to the same designed balance program given to the control group for 40 minutes. The treatment programsfor both groups were conducted every other day for 6 successive months. Pre and post assessment of dynamic balance was conducted by using the Biodex balance system and the body weight was measured in kilograms. Results: Comparing pre and post-treatment mean values of stability indexes showed a statistically significant improvement of all measured variables in the two groups. Moreover, post-treatment comparison between the two groups showed significant difference in all variables in favor of the study group. Conclusion: Vestibular stimulation in conjunction with a selected balance program is effective in improvingdynamic balance in obese children

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