Socio-educational intervention protocol. Its impact on rehabilitation and fall prevention in overweight older adults

Abstract

The physical coordination skills, particularly balance and fall prevention, of overweight older adults attending the Sports Medicine Clinic in Cienfuegos is a sensitive topic of debate during aging, as strength, mobility, and balance decline due to the inhibition and excitation processes of the Central Nervous System, especially in obesity. This study aimed to develop a protocol to improve the physical coordination skills, specifically balance and fall prevention, of overweight older adults from a socio-educational perspective. To this end, a non-experimental study was conducted among the beneficiaries of the Sports Medicine Clinic, using a purposive sample of 9 overweight individuals from a population of 22, aged 75 to 79 years. The standardized Rikli & Jones Functional Fitness Test was administered. For its design and development, methods at the theoretical level were used, including: the theoretical-logical, analytical-synthetic, inductive-deductive, hypothetical-deductive, modeling, and at the empirical level, surveys of specialists in Therapeutic Physical Culture. The findings support the knowledge management approach in the background and characterization stages, identifying overweight and obesity in older adults as an increasingly common condition that directly affects their health, autonomy, and quality of life. In this context, the specialists deemed the developed protocol highly appropriate and approved its practical implementation, which demonstrated the protocol's effectiveness in rehabilitation and fall prevention, as assessed by comparing before and after the study.