Effects of treadmill slip and trip perturbation-based balance training on falls in community-dwelling older adults (STABILITY): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Jens Eg Nørgaard; Stig Andersen; Jesper Ryg; Andrew James Thomas Stevenson; Jane Andreasen; Mathias Brix Danielsen; Anderson de Souza Castelo Oliveira; Martin Grønbech Jørgensen

doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052492

Effects of treadmill slip and trip perturbation-based balance training on falls in community-dwelling older adults (STABILITY): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

BMJ Open. 2022 Feb 7;12(2):e052492. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052492.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Geriatric Medicine, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark jens.noergaard@rn.dk.
² Department of Clinical Medicine, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark.
³ Department of Geriatric Medicine, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark.
⁴ Department of Geriatric Medicine, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark.
⁵ Department of Clinical Research, University of Southern Denmark, DK-5000 Odense, Denmark.
⁶ Department of Health, Science and Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark.
⁷ Department of Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, North Denmark Region, Denmark.
⁸ Department of Materials and Production, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark.

Abstract

Introduction: Falls among older adults are most frequently caused by slips and trips and can have devastating consequences. Perturbation-based balance training (PBT) have recently shown promising fall preventive effects after even small training dosages. However, the fall preventive effects of PBT delivered on a treadmill are still unknown. Therefore, this parallel-group randomised controlled trial aims to quantify the effects of a four-session treadmill-PBT training intervention on falls compared with treadmill walking among community-dwelling older adults aged 65 years or more.

Methods and analysis: 140 community-dwelling older adults will be recruited and randomised into either the treadmill-PBT or the treadmill walking group. Each group will undergo three initial training sessions within a week and an additional 'booster' session after 26 weeks. Participants in the treadmill-PBT group will receive 40 slip and/or trip perturbations induced by accurately timed treadmill belt accelerations at each training session. The primary outcome of interest is daily life fall rates collected using fall calendars for a follow-up period of 52 weeks. Secondary outcomes include physical, cognitive and social-psychological fall-related risk factors and will be collected at the pre-training and post-training test and the 26-week and 52-week follow-up tests. All outcomes will be analysed using the intention-to-treat approach by an external statistician. A Poisson's regressions with bootstrapping, to account for overdispersion, will be used to compare group differences in fall rates.

Ethics and dissemination: The study protocol has been approved by the North Denmark Region Committee on Health Research Ethics (N-20200089). The results will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journals and at international conferences.

Trial registration number: NCT04733222.

Keywords: geriatric medicine; preventive medicine; sports medicine.

Publication types

Clinical Trial Protocol
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Accidental Falls* / prevention & control
Aged
Exercise Test
Exercise Therapy / methods
Humans
Independent Living*
Postural Balance
Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
Walking

Associated data

ClinicalTrials.gov/NCT04733222