Are the sensorimotor mechanisms of balance control related to a reduced capacity to maintain balance in elderly people?

Completed

Conditions: Fall risk
history of falls
geen, alle deelnemers zijn gezonde ouderen en jongeren. Echter, de helft van de geïncludeerde ouderen heeft een valhistorie, maar is wel gezond.

Registration Number: NL-OMON42380

Lead Sponsor: niversiteit van Twente

Brief Summary: Not available

Detailed Description: Not available

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status: Completed

Sex: Not specified

Target Recruitment: 60

Inclusion Criteria

- Elderly: Age 65 years and older
o Elderly with history of falls: reporting at least one fall in the past year
o Elderly without history of falls: reporting no fall in the past year
- Healthy young: Age between 18 and 30 years
- Ability to stand for at least 5 consecutive minutes
- Able to walk independently or under supervision as indicated by a score of 4 on the Functional Ambulations Category (FAC)
- Able to provide written informed consent

Exclusion Criteria

- Orthopaedic problems, including recent fractures which are currently not completely healed, history of hip or knee replacement, or limb amputation
- Neurological disorders, including stroke, Parkinson*s disease and traumatic brain injury
- Back pain: Participants with past or current back pain resulting from intervertebral disc herniation, spondylolisthesis/ spondylolistholysis or (osteoporotic) vertebral fracture will be excluded. Participants with a history of non-specific low back pain will be excluded if they currently experience pain
- Visual impairments, including cataract. Participants who wear glasses or contact lenses to correct for myopia (short-sightedness) or hyperopia (far-sightedness) will not be excluded.
- Inability to follow simple verbal instructions as indicated by a score < 4 on the Utrecht Communication Observation Scale.
- Any medical condition in which exercise is contra-indicated.

Study & Design

Study Type: Observational non invasive

Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
<p>The main parameter to assess balance capacity is stepping threshold which is<br /><br>defined as the highest platform acceleration that can be overcome with a<br /><br>feet-in-place response. The main parameters to assess the sensorimotor<br /><br>mechanisms involved in balance control the frequency response functions, which<br /><br>quantify 1) the gain or magnitude of the response to the perturbation and 2)<br /><br>the phase lag between the response and the perturbation. </p><br>

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
<p>The secundary parameter to assess balance capacity is limit-of-stability which<br /><br>is defined as the highest platform acceleration that can be overcome with a<br /><br>maximum of one step. The secondary parameters to investigate sensorimotor<br /><br>mechanisms are obtained with a mathematical balance control model, which was<br /><br>developed at the University of Twente, en which will be fitted on the frequency<br /><br>response functions with optimization algorithms. The most important secondary<br /><br>parameters that will be estimated are: passive stiffness, passive damping,<br /><br>active stiffness, active damping, neural time delay and sensory reweighting<br /><br>factor for proprioceptive visual and vestibular information.</p><br>