Introduction:

The aging process affects the balance and mobility of older adults living in an institution, who can acquire functional independence thanks to exercise.

Objective:

To determine the effect of a program of anti-fall exercises and functional physical performance of older adults living in an institution.

Methods:

A multi-case, pre-experimental, prospective and longitudinal study was carried out in a non-probabilistic sampling of 12 older adults living in an institution with a record of falls during 2015. Balance and physical performance were measured before and after the use of this program of exercises. The data was analyzed with SPSS 22.0 program and Shapiro-Wilk test determined the normality of the variables. Student's and Wilcoxon's T tests verified the level of significance and statistics. Cohen's D measured the magnitude of the effect on clinical application. For sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, an exploratory bivariate analysis was used, and the multivariate analyzes used ANOVA and ETA 2 statistic.

Results:

Statistically significant changes in balance and frequency of falls were determined with p = 0.05 and 0.008; and large effect sizes d = 2.150 and d = 1.16, respectively. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics did not intervene in the effect of the program on balance and functional physical performance.

Conclusions:

The use of the anti-fall program improved balance and decreased falls in older adults living in an institution.

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