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Personalized tDCS in Elderly Fallers Study

NCT03814304 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 118

Last updated 2026-05-14

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

The objective of this study is to determine if a four-week, 20-session intervention of personalized transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), as compared to sham intervention, improves dual task standing and walking performance (Aim 1), as well as other physical (Aim 2) and cognitive (Aim 3) factors on the causal pathway to falls, in older adults who report two or more falls within the past year and fear of falling again in the future, yet who do not have any acute or over neurological or musculoskeletal condition.

Primary endpoints will include the "dual task" costs to gait speed when walking and postural sway speed when standing, as induced by performing a serial subtraction cognitive task (i.e., \[(speeddual task - speedsingle task) / speedsingle task) X 100\] (Aim 1), the Short Physical Performance Battery (Aim 2), and the Trail Making Test (Part B minus Part A) (AIM 3). Secondary endpoints will include the dual task cost to serial subtraction performance, additional gait and balance outcomes derived from the dual task paradigm, the Timed Up-and-Go, fear of falling, habitual physical activity, and performance within a battery of neuropsychological tests focused on global cognitive function, attention, verbal fluency and memory.

Conditions

  • Accidental Falls
  • Aging

Interventions

OTHER

Personalized tDCS

The participant will receive 20, 20-minute sessions of personalized tDCS on Monday-Friday, at approximately the same time of day, over four consecutive weeks.

OTHER

Active-Sham

The participant will receive 20, 20-minute sessions of active-sham stimulation on Monday-Friday, at approximately the same time of day, over four consecutive weeks.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Hebrew SeniorLife

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Brad Manor, PhD · Hebrew SeniorLife

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
TRIPLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
60 Years
Max Age
100 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2019-07-08
Primary Completion
2025-01-24
Completion
2025-07-31

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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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 NCT03814304 on ClinicalTrials.gov