Development and Evaluation of a Home-Based Dual-Task Training Program to Improve Balance Performance for Older Adults

Chiang Mai University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Elderly; Aged

Treatments: Other: Cognitive training; Other: Dual-task cognitive-cognitive training; Other: Balance exercise

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02280928

The graduate school, CMU

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to (1) develop and test the effectiveness of home-based interventions on dual-task performance in older adults; and (2) determine the generalizability of the four trainings (i.e. single-task motor training, single-task cognitive training, dual-task motor-cognitive training, and dual-task cognitive-cognitive trainings) to novel tasks.

Full description

Although, dual-task motor-cognitive training has proven to be more effective in improving dual-task balance performance than traditional single-task motor training, poor evidence of training-related transfer to a novel dual task has been shown. Additionally, another important impediment to the development of intervention to improve dual-task balance performance is that the previous studies have largely focused on training in a laboratory, or clinical setting, often with one-on-one supervision by a therapist or research assistant. Even though the home-based approach is more pragmatic, desirable, and encourages accessibility, no study has been done to examine the efficacy of home-based dual-task training.

Therefore, this study aims to address these gaps in the literature by conducting a home-based program designed to improve dual-task performance with a broader transfer-of-training effects in older adults. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of four groups (i.e. single-task motor training, single-task cognitive training, dual-task motor-cognitive training, and dual-task cognitive-cognitive trainings).

Enrollment: 60 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 65+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Able to walk at least 10 meters without any assistive device
• Having greater than 16/23 for illiterate persons, greater than 20/30 for primary education level persons, and greater than 23/30 for secondary education level persons on the Mini-Mental State Examination-Thai 2002 (MMSE-Thai2002)

Exclusion criteria

• Severe neurological problems that could account for possible imbalance such as cerebral vascular accident, Parkinson's disease, transient ischemic attacks, and neuropathy
• Severe musculoskeletal problems that could impact gait such as severe osteoarthritis and active inflammatory joint disease
• Severe cardiopulmonary problems such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• Visual impairment that cannot be corrected by lenses
• Severe auditory impairment such as deafness
• Depression as scored ≥ 13 by Thai Geriatric Depression Scale (TGDS)

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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60 participants in 4 patient groups

Single-task motor training group

Experimental group

Description:

The participants will receive only balance training which will progress from stance activities, to stance activities plus hand manipulation, then gait activities, and finally gait activities plus hand manipulation.

Treatment:

Other: Balance exercise

Single-task cognitive training group

Experimental group

Description:

The participants will receive cognitive training that will involve executive function, attention, and working memory.

Treatment:

Other: Cognitive training

Dual-task motor-cognitive training group

Experimental group

Description:

The participants assigned to the dual-task motor-cognitive training group will receive the same exercises as single-task motor training while simultaneously performing secondary tasks as those in the single-task cognitive training group.

Treatment:

Other: Balance exercise

Other: Cognitive training

Dual-task cognitive-cognitive training group

Experimental group

Description:

The participants in the dual-task cognitive-cognitive trainings group will receive two cognitive tasks at the same time.

Treatment:

Other: Dual-task cognitive-cognitive training