Geriatrics related conditions Nervous System Diseases Other extrapyramidal and movement disorders
Conditions
Interventions
1. Physical Exercise Training
1.1. Conventional Physical Gait Training: Both groups will perform 5-10 minutes warm-up exercises
1.2. Campbell developed a conventional gait training protocol, which is
Sponsors
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zürich) (Switzerland)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: 1. Age over 65 years 2. Signed informed consent statement 3. Ability to walk 10 meters or more with or without walking frame
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: 1. Severe cognitive impairment (Mini-Mental State Examination below 22 points) 2. Rapidly progressive or terminal illness, acute illness or unstable chronic illness
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Gait was measured with a GAITRite instrumented walkway (CIR Systems, USA) before and after twelve weeks of training. The GAITRite system provided temporal (time) and spatial (distance) gait parameters via an electronic walkway connected to the serial port of a personal computer. The GAITRite walkway contained sensor pads encapsulated in a roll-up carpet with an active area of 7.3 m long. As the subject walked through the walkway, the sensors captured each footfall as a function of time and transferred the gathered information to a personal computer to process the raw data into footfall patterns. The GAITRite walkway was extended with a 2.5 meter carpet at the end and beginning of the active area to eliminate the effect of acceleration or deceleration and allow for steady state gait assessment. For each subject the relative dual task costs (DTC) of walking was calculated, as percentage of loss relative to the single-task walking performance, according to the formula DTC [%] = 100 * (single-task score - dual-task score)/single-task score | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| 1. Physical performance: The Expanded Timed Get-up-and-Go (ETGUG) test measures the overall time to complete a series of functionally important tasks. The ETGUG test is a sensitive and objective assessment of physical function. 2. Fear of falling: The Falls Efficacy Scale International (FES-I) questionnaire was used as a measure of ?concern? about falling to determine the transfer effects of training to activities of daily living. This scale assesses both easy and difficult physical activities and social activities with a scale of: 1 = not at all concerned, 2 = somewhat concerned, 3 = fairly concerned, 4 = very concerned. 3. Simple Reaction Time These tasks are frequently used to measure psychomotor speed. Reaction time is assessed in milliseconds using a hand-held electronic timer and a light as the stimulus and depression of a switch by the finger and the foot as the responses. The light stimulus is located adjacent to the response switches and is bright (ie, supra-threshold) to ensure that the tests are not influenced by the subject?s visual acuity. The timer has a built-in variable delay of 1 to 5 seconds to remove any cues that could be gained from the test administrator commencing each trial by pressing the ?start? button. A modified computer mouse is used as the response box for the finger press task, and a pedal switch is used for the foot press task (Figs. 2A and 2B). Five practice trials are undertaken, followed by 10 experimental trials. 4. Postural Balance (SPPB) The Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) is an objective assessment tool for evaluating lower extremity functioning in older persons. It was developed by the U.S.A. National Institute on Aging. The SPPB is composed of three timed tests: 3-meter walking speed, balance, and chair stand tests. Timed results from each test are categorized into 5-level variables ranging from 0 (worst performers) to 4 (best performers) according to well-established cut-points. The sum of the results from the thr | — |
Countries
Switzerland
Outcome results
None listed