Balance perturbation system to improve balance compensatory responses during walking in old persons

Abstract

Ageing commonly disrupts the balance control and compensatory postural responses that contribute to maintaining balance and preventing falls during perturbation of posture. This can lead to increased risk of falling in old adults (65 years old and over). Therefore, improving compensatory postural responses during walking is one of the goals in fall prevention programs. Training is often used to achieve this goal. Most fall prevention programs are usually directed towards improving voluntary postural control. Since compensatory postural responses triggered by a slip or a trip are not under direct volitional control these exercises are less expected to improve compensatory postural responses due to lack of training specificity. Thus, there is a need to investigate the use balance perturbations during walking to train more effectively compensatory postural reactions during walking.This paper describes the Balance Measure & Perturbation System (BaMPer System) a system that provides small, controlled and unpredictable perturbations during treadmill walking providing valuable perturbation, which allows training compensatory postural responses during walking which thus hypothesize to improve compensatory postural responses in older adults.

Muscle weakness is related to slip-initiated falls among community-dwelling older adults

“…For instance, special treadmills were employed to improve balance compensatory responses during walking in young and older persons (Shapiro and Melzer, 2010). In another study, an incremental speed-dependent treadmill was used to reduce postural instability and fear of falling in persons with Parkinson's disease (Cakit et al, 2007).…”

The Effect of Vibrotactile Cuing on Recovery Strategies From a Treadmill-Induced Trip

“…1(a). A trip was simulated by stopping the belt at the left foot loading phase, i.e., abruptly changing the horizontal forces at the foot [44][45][46]. Each force plate measures the ground reaction force (GRF) along the vertical z axis exerted on each foot when the foot is in contact with the force plate.…”

Design and Evaluation of a new mechatronic platform for assessment and prevention of fall risks

“…Studies concerning perturbed treadmill locomotion have been carried out to analyze trained compensatory postural responses in older adults [7,8], to investigate stumbling reaction in young and elderly people [9,10], and to describe limb coordination of healthy subjects while locomotion is perturbed by the movement of one belt [11]. Other authors have also developed special devices embedded into the walkway in order to define standardized stability tests, to explore the recovery of gait stability in healthy individuals after a slipping perturbation [12], or to analyze the role of the arms while keeping balance after the sudden appearance of an obstacle [13].…”