Effectiveness of Alternative Therapy for Improving Cognition, Balance, and Physical Activity

The composite effect of reduced balance, cognition, gait abnormalities/gait disturbances, and physical activity in older adults with mild cognitive impairments (MCI) leads to fear of falling and reduced participation in daily activities, which results in reduced cardiovascular fitness and deconditioning. Although many conventional balance and strength training programs have been implemented for older adults with MCI; these adults do not receive adequate practice dosage to make significant improvements, most likely due to lack of adherence to therapy and/or inadequate incorporation of all domains of the ICF model (body functions and structures, activities and participation) and lack of targeting cognitive-motor interference (deterioration of motor and/or cognitive function when both tasks are performed together). The use of alternative therapies such as dance and virtual reality (VR) has been found to be relatively enjoyable for older adults due to increased motivation, which led to the added improvement of physical and cognitive functioning. The overall aims of this pilot is to test the feasibility of VR-based dance therapy paradigm for older adults with MCI as well as its effect on enhancing balance, gait, and cognition, and physical fitness. Investigators also hope that the net effect of improvement in these domains of health outcomes will result in pre and post reduction of fall risk and improved quality of life of older adults with MCI. The study investigates the effectiveness of a VR (Kinect)-based dance therapy in older adults with MCI by demonstrating its feasibility and compliance rate and also determine the efficacy of the VR-based dance therapy in improving health outcomes such as motor and cognitive functions, thereby reducing cognitive-motor interference. The study will also aim to determine the effectiveness of the VR-based dance paradigm in improving cardiovascular fitness and physical activity (PA) in older adults with MCI