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Intervention to Enhance Lateral Balance Function and Prevent Falls in Aging

NCT01370174 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 102

Last updated 2021-10-05

Study results available
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Summary

Falls and their consequences are among the major problems in the medical care of older individuals. The long-term goal of this research is to establish the efficacy of a scientifically grounded and mechanism-based therapeutic intervention for improving balance function and preventing falls in older people. When human balance is challenged, protective stepping is a vital strategy for preventing a fall during activities of daily life. Many older people at risk for falls have particular difficulties with successfully stepping sideways as a protective response to loss of balance in the lateral direction. We propose that age-related declines in lateral balance function through impaired protective stepping that precipitates falls, result from neuromechanical (NM) limitations in hip abductor-adductor (AB-AD) muscle strength (torque and power). Moreover, we hypothesize that these functional and NM impairments are reversible with combined high intensity induced step training (IST) and muscle strengthening.

Conditions

  • Accidental Falls

Interventions

OTHER

Physical Training Interventions

Subjects will be assigned to one of four training groups. Training will occur three times weekly for twelve consecutive weeks. The IST group will receive waist-pulls by a motorized machine to produce stepping. Subjects in the HST group will perform muscle resistance exercises. Subjects in the combined IST and HST will receive both IST and HST interventions. Participants in the SFR group will perform flexibility and relaxation exercises.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Northwestern University

    collaborator OTHER

  • VA Maryland Health Care System

    collaborator FED

  • University of Maryland, Baltimore

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Mark W Rogers, PT, PhD · University of Maryland, Baltimore

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
DOUBLE
Model
FACTORIAL

Eligibility

Min Age
65 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2012-01-25
Primary Completion
2016-12-09
Completion
2017-02-24

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Companies

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT01370174 on ClinicalTrials.gov