Can a Halliwick swimming programme develop water competence, static and dynamic balance in disabled participants?

• Autor(a) principal: Maia, Andreia
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Outros Autores: Amarante, Jean, Serra, Nuno, Vila-Chã, Carolina, Barbosa, Tiago, Costa, Mário
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10314/3810

Introduction The Halliwick concept is an aquatic rehabilitation programme aiming to enhance balance and core stability of disabled individuals. Previous studies focused on assessing the participants’ satisfaction on Halliwick programmes or the acquisition of water motor skills (Garcia et al., 2012).Yet, as far as our understanding goes there is not in the literature the assessment of the water independence or the transfer to land-based body balance and posture. Methods Nine individuals (33±12.3 years) diagnosed with cerebral palsy (n=2), mental disability (n=4) and trisomy 21 (n=3) were took part in a Halliwick’s 10-point programme. The programme had a duration of 15 weeks comprising one weekly session with one hour of duration. All sessions were planned and implemented by a trained therapist. In the beginning (W0) and in the end (W15) of the intervention programme it was assessed the water competence, static and dynamic balance. Water competence was assessed by the Water Orientation Test Align 2 (WOTA, in points) that is capped to 81 points (Tiroshi et al., 2008). Static balance was assessed by one-leg stance test (OST, in s) and functional reaching test (FRT, in m) according to standard guidelines. The Time up & go test (TUGT, in s) was selected as a measure of dynamic balance. Results Water competence measured by WOTA 2 showed significant improvements (WOTAW0 = 39±11 vs WOTAW15 = 57±16 points, p <0.01) between the beginning and end of the programme. Static balance also improved. There was a significant change in the OST (OSTW0 = 15.56±12.88 vs OSTW15 = 17.78±12.48 s, p = 0.04) and FRT (FRTW0 = 0.20±0.09 vs FRTW15 = 0.24±0.11 m, p <0.01) performances. Dynamic balance also improved (TUGTW0 = 9.12±2.61 vs TUGTW15 = 7.74±2.52 s, p = 0.01) after the 15th week. Conclusions It can be concluded that 15 weeks of a well-designed Halliwick programme can improve water competence of disabled individuals. Concurrently, it was also noted a positive transfer of the skills acquired in water to on land body balance and posture. Hence, fitness and health practitioners should be aware of the water benefits to improve balance and core stability in disable populations.