Fall Risk, Gait, Older Adults
Conditions
Keywords
attentional focus, gait, older adults, visual search
Brief summary
Only a few studies have adopted external focus strategy as an intervention to mitigate the negative effects of heightened conscious movement processing in older adults. The goal was to investigate whether a single-session intervention (SSI) using external focus strategy could improve gait stability and visual search behaviors during adaptive locomotion among the older population. Participants were randomly allocated to either an external focus (EXT) or a control group (CON). All participants performed an obstacle circumvention walking task along an 8-m walkway for five trials at pre-intervention (T0), post-intervention (T1), and retention (T2). The training phase included 20 walking trials. EXT focused on digits displayed on monitors at their path destinations, while CON walked naturally without any manipulation.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALExternal focus
The training phase consisted of 20 consecutive training trials, with a rest interval of at least 30 seconds between trials. All participants had to circumvent an obstacle during each trial on the 8-m level-ground walkway. During each trial, the general instruction was to focus on a random series of digits ranging from 0 to 9 displayed on monitors placed at the immediate and future destinations of the walkway. Each number was displayed for at least 2 seconds to allow participants to have sufficient time to read them.
BEHAVIORALControl
The training phase consisted of 20 consecutive training trials, with a rest interval of at least 30 seconds between trials. All participants had to circumvent an obstacle during each trial on the 8-m level-ground walkway. During each trial, the general instruction was to walk to the end of the walkway at your natural pace.
Sponsors
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
65 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* aged 65 or above * were able to walk independently indoors without walking aids
Exclusion criteria
* a total score of less than 24 on the Chinese version of the Mini-Mental State Examination * a static visual acuity poorer than 20/40 vision * the presence of any untreated cerebral vascular disease, Parkinson's disease, or any other major neurological deficit
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Gait stability | pre-test, post-test (the same day, immediately after the single-session intervention), 1 week after post-test (retention) | Measured by a 3-D motion-capture system. Indicated by the variabilities of temporal and spatial gait parameters |
| Visual search behavior | pre-test, post-test (the same day, immediately after the single-session intervention), 1 week after post-test (retention) | Measured by eye tracker. Indicated by: number of fixation (%) on ground number of fixation (%) on destination number of fixation (%) on obstacle number of fixation (%) on random areas fixation duration (%) on ground fixation duration (%) on destination fixation duration (%) on obstacle fixation duration (%) on random areas |
Countries
Hong Kong
Outcome results
None listed