Dual-task training for falls prevention among community-dwelling elderly people in Hong Kong.

The participants of the PACT programme group will undergo the PACT programme with once-weekly 60-minute sessions for 12 weeks. The dosage of the intervention is in line with a previous study testing the benefits of dual-task training on walking among the elderly. The programme will combine cognitive tasks with physical activities. The intervention will be delivered as group therapy with no group exceeding five members. At the end of 12 weeks, participants will be provided with a booklet outlining the activities and will be encouraged to continue exercising at home over the follow-up period. More information: A booklet summarizing the exercises will be provided to all the participants of the experimental (PACT) group. The procedure involved: PACT group participants will receive 10 minutes of warm up, 40 minutes of PACT training and 10 minutes of cool down exercises. PACT program includes performing four types of physical tasks during sit to stand, standing with feet apart, one leg, tandem standing, multidirectional reaching, stair climbing and walking (10 metres) tasks. The four cognitive tasks will include: counting backwards by subtracting 4 numbers (for mental tracking ), naming fruits, vegetables, or animals (for working memory), auditory cues for performing activities, example, perform heel raise when you hear the alphabet H (for improving attention and auditory discrimination), short story telling (for verbal fluency). In addition, falls prevention strategies will be taught. Safety: Motor-cognitive interaction occurs with highly challenging cognitive tasks increasing the risk of falls among the elderly. Careful calibration of the difficulty level of the cognitive task is required to ensure the safety of the participants. The difficulty level and progression of the cognitive and physical task will be tailor-made according to the participants’ tolerance in order to ensure safety during practice. Who will administer: A Hong Kong registered Physiotherapist will administer all the exercise. (d) Strategies to monitor: Adherence to the intervention protocol will be monitored using electronic diaries to reduce missing values and recall errors (https://goo.gl/MsyrSo). At the end of the 12-week training, participants will be provided information on how to access and complete the electronic diaries. We will use a digital diary designed for this study. A booklet summarising the list of exercises will be provided to all the PACT group participants for home practice. The booklet is specifically designed for this study.