Balance Control in Elderly
Conditions
Keywords
Balance control, bicycle balance, motor skill training, mobility
Brief summary
This study investigates the effectiveness of an intervention that aims at restoring bicycle balance control skills in seniors that have quit cycling. The intervention will last 11 weeks and involves three components: (1) training on an exercise bicycle, (2) a balance control training on a bicycle simulator, and (3) cycling on the public roads with a safe start-and-stop technique that was practiced on the bicycle simulator. In the bicycle simulator training, the difficulty of the balance control will be increased gradually, slowly approaching the difficulty of bicycle balance control on the public roads.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALBicycle balance control training
The intervention involves three components: (1) training on an exercise bicycle, (2) a balance control training on a bicycle simulator, and (3) cycling on the public roads with a safe start-and-stop technique that was practiced on the bicycle simulator. In the bicycle simulator training, the difficulty of the balance control will be increased gradually, slowly approaching the difficulty of bicycle balance control on the public roads.
Sponsors
Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging
Study design
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Persons that stopped cycling at least six months ago and want to get back on their bicycle.
Exclusion criteria
* Balance-relevant sensory disorders (peripheral neuropathy, labyrinthitis, vestibular neuritis, …)
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Bicycle balance control skill and confidence | Pretest: Between the second and the third week of June 2023 Posttest: First week of October 2023 | This outcome variable will be obtained from a questionnaire that evaluates participants' bicycle BC skills and confidence while riding on the public roads. For each of three environments (without traffic, little traffic, busy traffic), participants must indicate what applies to them: (1) I did not ride my bicycle here, (2) I rode my bicycle here, but I try to avoid it, and (3) I rode my bicycle here without problems. The answers to every question/environment were converted into a score by assigning 0, 1, and 2 points to the respective options. Summing these scores over the three questions/environments results in a number between 0 and 6, which is the outcome variable. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| One-minute functional threshold power (1minFTP) | From the third week of June 2023 until the second week of August 2023 | The 1minFTP is the highest power a participant can maintain for one minute while cycling at 60 revolutions per minute (RPM). The 1minFTP was assessed by having participants monitor their breath after a one-minute effort at some power level: if the participant can say only a few words at a time (a proxy for reaching the ventilatory threshold), the 1minFTP is reached. |
Countries
Netherlands
Outcome results
None listed