AquaReBal - Aquatic Reactive Balance Training for Older Adults

Summary

Falls are the second leading cause of accidental injury deaths worldwide, mostly in older adults. Injuries resulting from a fall are a leading cause of hospitalizations among older adults in Canada with a higher total injury cost than any other cause of injury. People must often perform rapid and complex movements to keep from falling. Reactive balance training (RBT) is a type of training that focuses on improving an individual's ability to perform those types of movements and respond to unexpected or sudden changes. RBT and aquatic therapy were identified as a research priority for fall prevention. There is evidence that RBT reduces the rate of falls by a half in daily life and improvements in reactive balance are maintained up to a year after the end of the program. When RBT is conducted on land, some adverse events such as fear of falling and joint pain may occur. The water environment could minimize the limitations and barriers associated with land-based RBT. To date, there are no studies showing the effects of water-based RBT on reactive balance control in older adults.The study aims to explore if water-based RBT is a practical intervention to reduce the number of falls in older adults. Older adults will be recruited from the Greater Toronto Area. They will receive training 2 times per week for 6 weeks. The main practical factors around the intervention, such as how participants adhere to the treatment and how they accept the intervention will be measured. It will be assessed how the water-based and land-based RBT affects falls, balance, mobility and quality of life. With this study, the aim is to inform the way for a larger study targeting falls - one of the biggest problems among older adults.

Conditions

• Older Adults, Balance
• Older People
• Aquatic Physical Exercise

Interventions

OTHER

AquaReBal

The interventions will be delivered one-on-one, in person at the KITE Research Institute by a trained and licensed physiotherapist. We will follow an RBT program previously developed by co-investigators. The interventions will be matched as closely as possible for frequency, intensity and time. The exercise interventions will be based on internal and external perturbations. Therapist-applied perturbations and multiple perturbation types and directions are of most benefit in terms of reactive balance control, so our study will focus on manual perturbations; the perturbations will be strong enough to cause stepping reactions. Interventions will be tailored to the individual participants' abilities. Each session will include a 10 min warm-up, at least 40 min of perturbations and a 10 min cool-down. Internal perturbations will be achieved by asking the participant to complete tasks that challenge balance control, such that they lose balance when attempting to perform the task.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Toronto Rehabilitation Institute

  collaborator OTHER

• Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-12-01

Primary Completion

2026-08-01

Completion

2026-08-01

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations