PERTURBATION TRAINING FOR FALL-RISK REDUCTION AMONG OLDER ADULTS

描述(由申请人提供)：这项研究的长期目标是一种预防性的方法，可以减少跌倒和由此导致的伤害在有风险的老年人中的发生率，从而降低其不断上升的医疗成本。该项目通过使用跑步机设备和运动学习方法来探索扰动训练，在这种方法中，利用跑步机产生的滑动样扰动的经验来准备运动系统，以发展并随后在训练环境之外使用抗摔倒技能(跨环境转移)。电脑控制的跑步机携带方便，安全易操作，有利于在诊所或社区中心使用。这项研究在逻辑上建立在该团队之前和当前研究计划的基础上，并对其进行补充，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跨环境转移，并在接下来的6至12个月内降低他们在日常生活中跌倒的可能性。最后，这项研究 我将探讨，这种跌倒的减少不仅仅来自于这些人对培训或测试设置、方案和环境的熟悉。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): 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.