Vision, Balance and Falls in Older Adults
Conditions
Keywords
balance, visual function, community-dwelling older adults, action video-game
Brief summary
This project is aimed to find out whether action video games can enhance dynamic visual function and improve balance function in the community-dwelling older adults. It is also aimed to examine the relationship between dynamic visions and balance functions.
Detailed description
Balance control is an important component even in a very simple daily task like walking. However, as we age, our physical and visual function would gradually deteriorate even in the absence of health or eye problems. Improving elderly balance control through different training is one way to prevent falls. In our project, we investigate the use of action video games, which is easy-to-find and entertaining, as a visual function trainer to improve balance of older adults. We hypothesize that the training would show an improvement in both balance and dynamic vision. Our primary hypothesis is that postural sway in static and dynamic balance measures will improve after action video-game intervention. For secondary outcome measures, we hypothesize that the training will improve dynamic visual function (as measured by dynamic visual acuity and dynamic contrast sensitivity), and visual attention measures (as measured by useful field of view, multiple object tracking and spatial attention).
Interventions
BEHAVIORALSlow-paced action video game
20 hours slow-paced action video games
BEHAVIORALFast-paced action video game
20 hours fast-paced action video games
BEHAVIORALControl
20 hours leisure activities
Sponsors
University of Waterloo
University of California, Berkeley
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
OTHER
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
60 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Ability to understand and speak Cantonese * No formal training or regular practice of balance function (e.g. Tai-chi) * Little and preferably no video-game experience * Best corrected distance acuity of 0.2 logMAR or better
Exclusion criteria
* Any diagnosed ocular diseases and ocular-motor abnormalities * Suffering form severe medical problems or self reported neurological or cognitive disorders * Suffering from physical impairments or physical limitations restricting them from training * Having self reported vestibular or cerebellar dysfunction, history of vertigo or severe hearing loss * Suffering from crippling arthritis, or a recent fracture of lower limb * Planned major surgery during the trial
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Static and dynamic postural sway on forced platform | Change from baseline at week 8 and change from baseline at week 16 | 1. Static Balance - postural sway when standing on firm or foam surface. 2. Dynamic Balance: 1. Limits of stability (LOS) 2. Sequential weight shifting test (SWS) |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Grating visual acuity at different moving speeds | Change from baseline at week 8 and change from baseline at week 16 | Dynamic visual function measure - Grating visual acuity is measured with different moving speeds |
| Useful Field of View (UFOV) | Change from baseline at week 8 and change from baseline at week 16 | One of the visual attention measures - Useful Field of View (UFOV) |
| Multiple tracking objects (MOT) | Change from baseline at week 8 and change from baseline at week 16 | One of the visual attention measures - Multiple tracking objects (MOT) |
Countries
China
Outcome results
None listed