View clinical trials related to Balance.
Filter by:The purpose of this study is to compare current standing balance assessment methods to a new method that measures weight shift during small movements of a sliding platform. It will also be used to determine if balance improves with repeated exposure as part of a 4-week training program.
Most boxing injuries occurs over head and neck which leads to potentially acute or chronic head and neck injuries. Patients with whiplash injury has been reported, reflected by increased body sway and reduced ability to overcome challenging balance tasks. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the fitness and balance outcomes between the boxers and the control group, and boxers undergoing posterior-neck icing effects.
Subjects will be secured and rotated in a whole body gyroscope, similar to a flight trainer for astronauts. The rotations will be in many directions and the speed will be at 90 deg/sec. The effects of this rotation on the ability to stand upright will be measured.
Among the components of postural control, sensorial integration is of crucial importance. The most important sensorial inputs for postural maintenance are the vestibular system which provides information regarding accelerations of the head in space (HORAK 1994), the somatosensory system which provides proprioceptive information that are used to determine changes in body position (INGLIS 1994) and the visual system which provides information for self motion in the environment. The receptors and the integration channel of each sensorial system have inner characteristics which lead to different performance of the different input in regards to the task and the environmental context (FITZGERALD 1994). Most of time, sensorial information are congruent but sometimes they are conflicted. This is the case when being in a stationary train, the train beside going on, giving the illusory sensation of movement even if the vestibular system is not activated. A sensory weighting process is then necessary for subjects to control balance. The Central Nervous System (CNS) is thought to adjust the relative contribution of sensory input to control stance depending on environmental conditions (CENCIANNI 2006) and the reliability of the sensory input (OIE 2002, KESHNER 2004) in order to maintain or achieve the desired orientation in space and to provide postural stability. Nevertheless the interconnection of the multiple sensorial feedback involved in the postural control is not yet completely understood (CHIARI 2000). Today, there is no tool available to evaluate the individual use of the sensorial information to postural control. It seems interesting to have such a tool to better understand the sensorial preference of subjects. It would be of particular importance for patients with various pathologies in the aim to design individualized balance rehabilitation programs. The aim of the study was to test a tool built to evaluate the sensorial preference of subjects by studying their postural reaction related to the 3 main sensorial perturbations. Normal subjects will be first tested to assess the repeatability of the protocol and to collect normal values. Then, patients with post stroke hemiplegia, vestibular disease, neuropathy and fallers will be studied in order to test the feasibility of the protocol and to have preliminary data of sensorial preference among these populations.
The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of a 6-month music-based multitask exercises program (Jaques-Dalcroze eurhythmics) in improving gait and balance, and reducing fall risk in community-dwelling older adults with an increased risk of falling.
The goal of the present study was to objectively evaluate the postural behaviour of type II obese patients as compared to adults showing a normal body mass index (BMI) in critical postural tasks.
Compared with cognitively normal older adults, those with mild cognitive problems (MCI) have a two-fold higher rate of falls, sustain more fractures, and have a higher rate of mortality due to falls. Why older adults with cognitive problems fall more frequently is not completely understood. What is known, however, is that attention is a necessary cognitive resource for normal walking and impairments in attention are associated with increased risk of falls in older adults. It has been suggested that cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEI), medications used for treatment of dementia, may improve motor function and walking (gait performance). Since ChEI are known to improve attention, we hypothesized that ChEI will reduce falls risk in people with MCI by improving their gait velocity, improving their balance, and reducing their gait variability; a well-established risk factor for falls. In the proposed study, we will evaluate the effect of donepezil (ChEI) on gait velocity, gait variability, and the balance on 140 elderly individuals with MCI (70 intervention and 70 controls). Gait variables will be measured using an electronic walkway, and balance confidence using a validated scale (Activities-Specific Balance Confidence Scale; ABC) over four months. By characterizing and understanding the effects of cognitive enhancers on fall risk in older adults with cognitive impairments, we will be able to pave the way for a new approach to fall prevention in this population. We would establish that medications that augment cognitive function could be a complementary therapeutic option for reducing fall risk in people with MCI. This may lead to new approaches to prevent and treat fall risk in this population, which will lead to improve the autonomy and quality of life of seniors in early stage of dementia, and a decreased burden for the Ontario health care system.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether there are quantifiable differences in walking stability, as measured by the acceleration of the trunk or the variation in step length, between people with unilateral below-knee amputations from vascular reasons or from trauma reasons.
The purpose of this study is to test and compare the balance reactions of Tranfemoral Amputees and able bodied subjects in response to perturbations given by a highly advanced Virtual Reality system.
The proposed project is a Randomized Controlled study design. Seniors (age >65) willing to participate in the study will be shortly interviewed to assess eligibility according to the inclusion-exclusion criteria. The first 60 subjects who upon questioning were judged to meet the following inclusion criteria: 1. able to stand independently 90 seconds 2. able to walk 10 meters (with cane if necessary) 3. able to understand verbal instructions. The exclusion criteria will be: 1. Serious visual impairment 2. Inability to ambulate independently (cane acceptable, walker not). 3. Severely impaired cognitive status (score less then 24 in Mini Mental State Examination). 4. Persons with impaired communication capabilities. The whole project will be conducted over a period of 24 months. The proposed study is a randomized experimental intervention/ control group design. A total of 60 elderly volunteer subjects will be randomly assigned to two groups, exercise group (30) and control group (30). Twelve training periods will be performed with 8 subjects participating in training during each period (4 exercise groups). The exercise group will meet on 24 occasions over a period of 12 weeks (2 times/week). Gait and balance function will be tested in both groups with well established measuring techniques before and after the training period. The measuring techniques 1. Medical background variables. 2. Berg Balance Scale. 3. Late life Function and Disability Instrument. 4. Get up and go test - stand up and walk 3 meters turn around and walk back to the chair. 5. Fall Efficacy Scale 6. Fall incidence and fall severity. 7. 6-minute walk test. The control group will not perform any specific balance training during the 12 week period. These individuals from control will participate in a separate exercise program after the training period. The water training intervention is performed on different levels where each level reflects different increasing demands on the postural control system. The water exercises also include perturbation exercises that trigger specific reflex-like balance responses. On each level the instructor can instantly modify an exercise to be more or less challenging for each participant.