"Can A Prescribed Walking Program With or Without Monitoring Impact Dizziness in the Older Adults?"

Summary

Dizziness is a common complaint reported by 30% of people above 65 years of age and by more than 50% of those 90 years of age and older.(1) Age-related decline in vestibular, musculoskeletal, and neurologic performances compounded by a vestibular pathology can result to debilitating physical and psychological consequences. Dizziness is associated with falls,(2) disability (3) and physical inactivity.(4) Walking for endurance is cited as one of the components of vestibular rehabilitation (VR) in the "Clinical Practice Guideline for Peripheral Vestibular Hypofunction".(5) Although walking can offset the avoidance of physical activity from symptom provocation, no direct evidence has been found to support the effect of walking on postural and dynamic stability, function, and participation in people with dizziness.

The primary purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of walking as an exercise component of VR on both primary and secondary vestibular-specific outcome measures. The primary outcomes are mCTSIB, TUG test, DGI, and DHI, while the secondary outcomes are the total number of visits and length of interventions (in weeks). The second purpose is to evaluate whether pedometers increase the adherence of older adults with vestibular issues to a walking program. This will be measured by change in physical activity, as represented by International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) Walking Metabolic Equivalent of Task (MET)-minutes/week and IPAQ Total Physical Activity MET-minutes/week scores from the IPAQ short form during the episode of care (admission and discharge) and on four-weeks follow-up compared to those patients who only received instructions to walk without a pedometer. The third purpose of this study is to establish test-retest reliability of the TUG test on older adults with dizziness. Lastly, the fourth purpose of this study to investigate if the TUG, DGI, and mCTSIB are significant and strong predictors of the DHI in older adults with dizziness. Protocol #1365169 "Predictors of Disability in the Older Adults" is being performed to supplement the number of subjects for the fourth objective of this study.

Conditions

• Dizziness

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

VRWP Group

The VRWP group will have VR with an instruction to increase their number of steps daily to at least 3,000 steps using the pedometer (VR plus walking plus pedometer group). They will receive pedometers (Fitbit Zip), instructions on how to use the pedometer, step log forms, with home instruction handout to walk more at least more than ten minutes at a time. The participants will record on their activity log the number of steps shown on the step display at the end of the day. The daily step log form will be given to the research staff every visit for recording. The research staff will encourage their participants to increase their daily steps at least 10% until they achieve at least 3,000 steps daily.

BEHAVIORAL

VRW Group

The VR (control) group will follow the conventional VR physical therapy without the encouragement of walking and without specification of walking in the home exercise program.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Adventist University

  collaborator OTHER

• AdventHealth

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Mary Blackinton, EED · Nova Southeastern University

• Joann Gallichio, DSC · Nova Southeastern University

• Ann Galgon, PhD · University of the Sciences

• Leana Araujo, PhD · Adventist University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2018-07-18

Primary Completion

2019-09-05

Completion

2019-09-05

Countries

• United States

Study Locations