Background/Purpose The Power Balance band claims to enhance balance. The purpose of this study was to test whether or not the wearing of the balance band would improve balance.
Method College students were randomly assigned into 4 groups according to the Solomon 4 group design. A Power Balance band and a placebo band were disguised to appear the same and served as the treatment and control. Balance was measured by using the Biodex Balance System(BSS) using the limits of stability protocol with the tracing device turned off to limit visual feedback.
Analysis/Results Thirty two males and 46 females participated. A 2x2 factorial ANOVA , ANCOVA and an independent t-test were used. There was no significant interaction between the pre/post-test condition and the treatment (p > 0.05). Using the pre-test as the covariate, there was no significant treatment effect (p = 0.705).The t-test between pre/post test scores showed no significant difference (p = 0.360). A one-way ANOVA conducted on the post-test scores of all groups showed a significant difference (p = 0.001). The significant differences were between the groups using a pre-test and those that did not (p = 0.09, 0.02). This indicated a testing but no treatment effect since the post-test only treatment vs. control group difference was not significant (p = 0.502).
Conclusions Our hypothesis of there being no significant improvement in balance by wearing the PB band was upheld. These bands do not improve performance based on objective balance tests. The results did show that practice improves balance.