The effects of whole body vibration exercise intervention on electroencephalogram activation and cognitive function in women with senile dementia

This study conducted the Korean version of Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE-K) to women aged 65 or older residing in Gangwon-do Province and screened those who were suspicious to have mild dementia for receiving 23 points or lower in it. For eight weeks, this author tried to verify the effects of whole body vibration exercise intervention on electroencephalogram (EEG) activation and cognitive function in women with senile dementia. According to the results, both EEG activation and cognitive function indicated statistically significant difference in terms of the interactive effect between the measuring times and groups, and there was statistically significant improvement found after the whole body vibration exercise intervention. The results of this study are meaningful because they present the possibility of whole body vibration exercise intervention to be integrated into the plan to improve life quality in patients with senile dementia by stimulating their muscle spindles and sensory organs only with the amplitude and the number of vibrations with no burden of physical activity and enhancing their EEG activation and cognitive function through the responses of the neuromuscular system.