NCT04602858

The SafeTrip Study - Step Training to Reduce Falls in Older Adults

Reactive Balance Training Involving Repeated Trips and Slips in Older Adults: Mechanisms and Long-term Retention

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 118 (actual)
• Sponsor: Neuroscience Research Australia · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Falls in older people are devastating, widespread, costly and increasing in the aging Australian population. Although falls occur in approximately one third of older adults, certain population groups such as the sarcopenic/frail present with further elevated risk of falls. Many exercise interventions have been trialled but systematic review evidence indicates such programs reduce fall rates by an average of only 20% and encounter issues such as compliance. Reactive balance training (also called perturbation-based balance training) utilises a task-specific approach to balance training, applying repeated exposure to unpredictable perturbations that mimic balance disturbances experienced in daily life. Evidence suggests 50% reductions in falls might be achievable in a time efficient manner with reactive balance training but more evidence is required. In this study, ecologically valid, unpredictable trips and slips will be exposed to older people in a safe environment to train their reactive balance. Three 40 min weekly training sessions will be followed by 3-monthly retraining session over one year (40 min x 6 training sessions = 4 hours of training in total). The neuromuscular, physiological, psychological, behavioural effects of the reactive balance training will be comprehensively examined.

Conditions

• Fall
• Fall Injury

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Reactive Balance Training	Reactive balance training involves the use of the Trip and Slip walkway that is able to expose participants to unpredictable trips and slips. Trips and slips will occur at random location on the walkway and times within the gait cycle, with the participants receiving 3-monthly retraining sessions along with an educational booklet.
OTHER	Control	The control intervention will be receiving an educational booklet as part of standard care. The education component will target a variety of fall risk factors and provide strategies to mitigate these risk factors.

Timeline

• Start date: 2020-12-01
• Primary completion: 2023-11-19
• Completion: 2023-11-19
• First posted: 2020-10-26
• Last updated: 2024-03-21

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Australia