Effects of Exergames on Vestibular Function in Healthy Community Dwellers.

Vestibular Diseases Clinical Trial

Official title:

Effects of a Virtual Reality-based Dual-task Exercise on Vestibular Function in Healthy Community Dwellers. A Pilot Study

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03160352
• Other study ID #: BASEC 2016-1220
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: May 12, 2017
• Est. completion date: July 10, 2017

Study information

• Verified date: May 2020
• Source: University of Zurich
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The aim is to assess the effects of virtual reality-based intervention on vestibular functions in healthy community dwellers.

Description:

Elderly usually experience an age-related type of vestibular disorder, which involves vertigo, dizziness and poor postural stability. These symptoms seem to contribute to the "geriatric syndrome", which describes a complex symptomatology. It usually has multiple causes and must be considered interdisciplinary. This study will only consider healthy elderly with an expected age-related degeneration of the vestibular system. In terms of restoring vestibular functioning, compensation can be classified into adaptation, substitution and habituation. Adaptation enhances the Vestibulo-ocular reflex, which is equivalent to restoration. Habituation on the other hand, accustoms the affected person to a conflicting situation, in order that the response of the Vestibulo-ocular reflex is avoided. Substitution is distinguished in literature between sensory and behavioral, in which the sensorial substitution transfers the importance given to proprioceptive and visual inputs and the behavioral substitution refers to avoidance strategies e.g. immobilization, increased blink reflex and prevention of head rotations. Slower gait speed may also be a method used by elderly for compensation during a task when the base of support is unstable. Considering recommendation future studies should incorporate examinations of functional gaze stability during typical daily tasks in more familiar settings as opposed to laboratory assessments. Increased head movement may disturb balance and the risk of falling may be raised while walking stairs. As head stability is challenged during stair descent, elderly with age-related visual and vestibular impairment have problems with completing this quotidian task. A way to consider these observations in vestibular rehabilitation is the use of a virtual reality environment, which provides a motivating and pleasant method to train and that includes exercises requiring head turns. Successful use of virtual reality in rehabilitation of vestibular patients has previously been implemented. However, these studies did not particularly to exercise head turns by completing an orientation task.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 12
• Est. completion date: July 10, 2017
• Est. primary completion date: June 25, 2017
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 65 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

Healthy community dwellers Adult male and female participant's (=65 years) Signed informed consent after being informed

Exclusion Criteria:

Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo Acute pain Walking disability (independent walking <10 meters) Uncontrolled cardiovascular disease (e.g.: uncontrolled blood pressure) Weakness due to neurological problems

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Vestibular Diseases

Intervention

Other:
• Exergame
In total, 10 sessions were accomplished including baseline and post intervention measurements. The remaining eight exercise sessions lasted 40 minutes, with an actual training duration of 20 minutes. This resulted in a cumulative total intervention exercise time of 160 minutes.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Switzerland	University Hospital Zurich, Directorate of Research and Education, Physiotherapy & Occupational Therapy Research	Zurich	ZH

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Zurich

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Switzerland, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Dynamic Visual Acuity (DVA)	The DVA is the measurement of visual acuity during head movement relative to baseline static visual acuity	30 minutes
Secondary	Functional Gait Assessment (FGA)	The FGA is used to measure disturbances in balance and gait	15 minutes
Secondary	Extended Timed Get-Up-And-Go (ETGUG)	The time measured during each task and the overall time mirrors the functional mobility of the participant	15 minutes
Secondary	Gait speed	Time was measured in with a stopwatch as the participants walked in the central 6 m of the walkway.	5 minutes
Secondary	Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ)	The SSQ questionnaire assesses, cyber or virtual reality sickness	5 minutes