Sensory Treadmill to Improve of Balance During Walking

描述（由申请人提供）：本项目的长期目标是为因衰老而平衡控制能力差的个人开发“智能健康”技术。健康老龄化的一个关键组成部分是流动性。当流动性受到限制时，健康和生活质量急剧下降，同时增加了医疗保健系统的显着成本。“智能健康”技术有望在保持移动性和降低医疗成本增长方面发挥关键作用。治疗老年人行动不便的两个主要障碍是获取和费用。我们的方法是修改一个完善的设备（即，跑步机）从目前的重点是心血管训练的平衡和身体位置控制。人类直立姿态的控制需要来自多个源的感觉输入来检测自我运动并产生适当的肌肉响应。老年人的自我运动知觉下降，往往产生不适当的姿势反应，以保持平衡，增加他们的风险福尔斯。需要 提供一种易于使用的、负担得起的装置，该装置提供增强的感觉输入，其已经被证明在行走期间改善对自我运动和平衡的控制，在行走期间福尔斯是最频繁的。该项目的具体目标是：确定通过跑步机步行与视觉反馈改善对身体位置的控制是否会增强功能性活动。受试者在感觉跑步机上行走，移动受试者的躯干。然后，躯干数据显示为行走的化身，受试者在视觉屏幕前控制，同时两个网络摄像头跟踪身体运动的标记。初步数据表明，受试者有效地使用视觉反馈，以提高控制的身体位置和方向，而在跑步机上。该项目将通过对功能活动性的临床前后评估，比较在易跌倒的老年受试者中使用典型跑步机与感觉跑步机进行八周干预的效果。该项目的结果将说明新技术如何通过以安全、负担得起和有效的方式提供平衡训练来满足老龄化人口的功能需求。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term goal of this project is to develop "smart health" technology for individuals with poor balance control due to aging. A critical component of healthy aging is mobility. When mobility is limited, health and quality of life declines dramaticaly while adding significant cost to the health care system. "Smart health" technologies are poised to play a key role in maintaining mobility and reducing the growth of health care costs. Two major barriers to treating mobility problems in older adults are access and cost. Our approach is to modify a well-established device (i.e., treadmill) from its current focus on cardiovascular training to that of balance and body position control. Control of human upright stance requires sensory input from multiple sources to detect self-motion and to generate appropriate muscle responses. Older individuals have degraded self-motion perception and often generate inappropriate postural responses to maintain equilibrium, increasing their risk for falls. The need is to provide an easy-to-use, affordable device that provides augmented sensory input which has been proven to improve control of self-motion and balance during walking, during which falls are most frequent. The specific aim of the project is: To determine whether improved control of body position through treadmill walking with visual feedback leads to enhanced functional mobility. Subjects walk on the sensory treadmill the moving subject's trunk. Trunk data are then displayed as a walking avatar that subjects control with their in front of a visual screen while two web cams track markers on body movements. Preliminary data demonstrate that subjects effectively use the visual feedback to improve control of body position and orientation while on the treadmill. The project will compare the effects of eight-week interventions with a typical treadmill versus a sensory treadmill in fall-prone older subjects through pre- post clinical evaluations of functional mobility. The results of this project will illustrate how new technology can address the functional needs of the aging population, by providing access to balance training in a safe, affordable and effective manner.