Results From a Randomized Controlled Trial to Address Balance Deficits After Traumatic Brain Injury.
Candace Tefertiller, Kaitlin Hays, Audrey Natale and 6 others
PMID 31009598WHAT IT FOUND
Virtual reality balance games were not better than traditional home exercise programs for people with chronic traumatic brain injury.
Both groups improved similarly over 24 weeks, so neither approach is superior for treating balance deficits.
Key findings
01There were no significant differences between the virtual reality and traditional home exercise groups in balance scores over the study duration.
02Both groups showed significant improvements in balance scores from baseline to 24 weeks, regardless of which treatment they received.
03Neither treatment produced significant changes in balance confidence or community participation measures.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study was designed to detect a difference between treatments, not to prove they are equivalent; a lack of difference does not confirm that both are equally effective. There was no passive control group, so it is impossible to know if the improvements were due to the exercises or other factors like natural fluctuation or attention. Exercise dose was based on self-reported logs, which may be inaccurate. The sample size was too small to determine which patient characteristics predict a better response to treatment.
Declared interests
Funding was provided by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that virtual reality is as effective as traditional exercise just because the groups performed similarly. The study was powered to find differences, not to prove equivalence, so the results only show that VR was not superior.