Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-14T13:53:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 438170.pdf: 1085888 bytes, checksum: 5a64b90d2fef499470471d638694ff45 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-20 / Introduction: With the ageing, changes in the balance are inherent in the physiological process, causing falls and complications associated with it. There are many strategies to improve balance, such as resistance physical exercise program, Tai Chi, and more recently whole body vibration. Objectives: to evaluate the efficacy of the whole body vibration over the balance and in life quality in healthy elderly women in the Geriatric clinic of S?o Lucas Hospital. Methods: sixteen weeks randomized clinical trial with 18 elderly women (9 in the interventional group and 9 in the control group) with age greater or equal 60 years, patients in Geriatric clinic of S?o Lucas Hospital. They do not have any severe or disabling diseases whose source is rheumatologic, orthopedic, neurovascular, renal or hepatic. The interventional group has trained in a whole body vibration with frequency between 10-15 Hz and the control has a sedentary life style. Exposure to whole body vibration was intermittent (3 minutes, 1 minute rest) for 11 minutes, three times per week during sixteen weeks. The instruments used were the social and health questionnaire, Berg Balance Scale, World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL) in the abbreviated version and Lawton?s Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale. Subjects were evaluated in the beginning, eight weeks and sixteen weeks after. For the analysis, frequencies, means, standard deviations, chisquare test, Student paired samples t-test, correlation coefficient of Pearson and McNemar test have been applied. The dataset was developed in Excel? 2007 and the data and statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 17. Results: in this study, no statistically significant difference between the interventional and control groups in the balance and life quality (p=0.81) has been achieved. However, a moderate correlation between the balance and the performance in the physical dominium in WHOQOL in the three evaluation moments (rt0=0.47, rt1=0.55 e rt2=0.56) has been shown. Conclusions: in this study, no improvement has been seen in the life quality and balance in the sample evaluated. However, it is important to mention that this limitation can be associated with the sampling size. / Introdu??o: Com o envelhecimento, altera??es do equil?brio s?o inerentes ao processo fisiol?gico, podendo acarretar quedas e complica??es ligadas ao evento. Existem v?rias estrat?gias para melhorar o equil?brio, como programas de exerc?cios f?sicos resistidos, Tai Chi e mais recentemente a plataforma vibrat?ria. Objetivos: avaliar a efic?cia da plataforma vibrat?ria no equil?brio e qualidade de vida de idosas saud?veis do ambulat?rio do Servi?o de Geriatria do Hospital S?o Lucas. M?todos: ensaio cl?nico randomizado de dezesseis semanas de dura??o, com 18 idosas (9 no grupo caso e 9 no grupo controle) de idade igual ou superiora 60 anos, usu?rias do Ambulat?rio de Geriatria Geral e que n?o possu?am doen?as graves ou incapacitantes de origem reumatol?gica, ortop?dica, neurovascular, renal ou hep?tica. O grupo interven??o realizou treino na plataforma vibrat?ria com uma freq??ncia entre 10-15Hz e o controle permaneceu com o estilo de vida sedent?rio. A interven??o na plataforma vibrat?ria foi intermitente (3 minutos, 1 minuto de repouso) por 11 minutos, tr?s vezes na semana durante dezesseis semanas. Os instrumentos utilizados foram o question?rio com dados sociais e de sa?de, Escala de Equil?brio de Berg, Avalia??o da Qualidade de Vida (WHOQOL) vers?o abreviada, Escala de Atividades Instrumentais de Vida Di?ria de Lawton. As pacientes foram avaliadas no in?cio do estudo, oito semanas e dezesseis semanas ap?s. Foram utilizadas freq??ncias, m?dias, desvios-padr?o, teste do qui-quadrado, teste t de Student para amostra pareada, coeficiente de correla??o de Pearson e teste de McNemar. O banco de dados foi desenvolvido em Excel vers?o 2007 e analisado no programa estat?stico SPSS 17. Resultados: no presente estudo, n?o se verificou diferen?a estatisticamente significativa entre o grupo caso e controle na melhora do equil?brio e da qualidade de vida (p=0.81). Demonstrou-se, no entanto, uma correla??o direta moderada entre o equil?brio e o desempenho no dom?nio f?sico do WHOQOL nos tr?s momentos de avalia??o (rt0=0.47,rt1=0.55 e rt2=0.56). Conclus?o: N?o foi observada uma melhora no equil?brio e na qualidade de vida na amostra estudada. No entanto, ? importante ressaltar que esta limita??o possa ter uma rela??o com o tamanho amostral.