The long-term objective of this research is a prophylactic approach that can reduce the incidence of falls and the resulting injuries among older adults at risk and thus reduce its escalating medical cost. This project explores perturbation training through the use of treadmill device and a motor learning approach, in which experience with slip-like perturbation generated by that treadmill is used to prepare the motor system to develop and then put to use fall-resisting skills outside of training environment (cross-environment transfer). The computer-controlled treadmill is portable, safe and easy to operate, thus conducive for use in clinics or community centers. The study logically builds on and complements the team's previous and current research programs, and will further test that after such a single session, older adults at risk can retain such cross-environment transfer and reduce their likelihood of falls in everyday living for the next 6 to 12 months. Finally, the study will explore that such reduction of falls does not come merely from these persons' familiarity with the training or testing setup, protocol and environments.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
308
Group A will receive perturbation training on a treadmill with precisely controlled slip-like displacements and then encounter an unannounced novel slip during over-ground walking.
An age-matched control group (Group B) will receive only placebo training (on the same treadmill for the same duration but without perturbation) but encounter an identical novel slip during their over-ground walking.
An age-matched observation-training group (Group C) will watch a training video and slides. When exposed to an identical novel slip in over-ground walking, they will know where and how the slip is going to occur and how to resist a fall.
Clinical Gait and Movement Analysis Laboratory
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Fall incidence
Time frame: 1 year
Dynamic stability
The dynamic stability will be evaluated based on the dynamic relationship of motion state (i.e., the combination of position and velocity) between the center of mass and the base of support. It will be calculated as the shortest distance from the instantaneous motion state of the center of mass to the threshold against backward fall. It is a dimensionless variable.
Time frame: 6 months
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