PERTURBATION TRAINING FOR FALL-RISK REDUCTION AMONG OLDER ADULTS

摘要 这项研究的长期目标是一种预防方法，可以减少跌倒的发生率和 由此造成的伤害在老年人中处于危险之中，从而降低其不断上升的医疗成本。这个项目 探索通过使用跑步机设备和运动学习方法进行扰动训练，其中 跑步机产生滑动样扰动的经验被用来准备电机系统以 培养并运用训练环境外的抗跌倒技能(跨环境转移)。 电脑控制跑步机轻便、安全、操作方便，便于临床或医疗人员使用 社区中心。这项研究在逻辑上建立在团队先前和当前研究的基础上，并与之相辅相成 计划，并将进一步测试在这样的单一疗程后，有风险的老年人是否可以保留这种交叉- 在接下来的6到12个月里，转移环境并减少他们在日常生活中跌倒的可能性。最后， 这项研究将探索，这种跌倒的减少并不仅仅来自这些人对 培训或测试设置、协议和环境。

ABSTRACT The long-term objective of this research is a prophylactic approach that can reduce the incidence of falls and the resulting injuries among older adults at risk and thus reduce its escalating medical cost. This project explores perturbation training through the use of treadmill device and a motor learning approach, in which experience with slip-like perturbation generated by that treadmill is used to prepare the motor system to develop and then put to use fall-resisting skills outside of training environment (cross-environment transfer). The computer-controlled treadmill is portable, safe and easy to operate, thus conducive for use in clinics or community centers. The study logically builds on and complements the team's previous and current research programs, and will further test that after such a single session, older adults at risk can retain such cross- environment transfer and reduce their likelihood of falls in everyday living for the next 6 to 12 months. Finally, the study will explore that such reduction of falls does not come merely from these persons' familiarity with the training or testing setup, protocol and environments.