The Effects of A 6-Week Selected Balance and Cawthorne-Cooksey Exercises on Static Balance and Mobility in Female Patients With Multiple Sclerosis

Purpose: this quasi-experimental and applied research was conducted in 2019. the statistical population of this study included female patients with multiple sclerosis (ms) who were members of the iranian ms association.methods: the study subjects were selected among those with a moderate level of disability (between grades 2 & 5). from the statistical population, initially, 60 individuals were selected by a simple and accessible method; however, for some reason, some samples dropped out during the research. in total, 14, 15, and 19 individuals included the balance, cawthorne-cooksey, and control groups, respectively. they were selected based on the study inclusion and exclusion criteria. the three groups were evaluated for static balance by the stork test; then, their mobility was measured by the timed up and go (tug) test at the pretest phase. next, the two experimental groups performed the exercises for 6 weeks and 3 sessions per week. besides, at the end of the exercise protocol, the three groups conducted the mentioned test again at the posttest step. to compare the between-groups data at the posttest, one-way analysis of variance (anova) and least significant difference (lsd) test were used to compare the differences between the research groups at a significance level 0.05. results: the present research results indicated that the balance and cawthorne-cooksey exercises performed in the experimental groups revealed statistically significant changes in the two studied factors (both p=0.001). moreover, the lsd test results signified that in the mobility test, there was a significant difference between the control group and balance exercises group (p=0.001) and the control group and cawthorne-cooksey exercises group (p=0.001). additionally, in the static balance test, a significant difference was observed between the control group and balance exercises group (p=0.003) and the control group and cawthorne-cooksey exercises group (p=0.001). finally, it was revealed that female patients with ms presented better balance and mobility after performing the exercise sessions. conclusion: the obtained data suggested that specialists could use the explored selected balance exercises and cawthorne-cooksey exercises to improve balance and mobility in patients with ms.