A new balance training plan for older adults at risk of falling

The goal of this clinical trial is to examine the effects of a novel task-specific balance training for reducing environmental falls in community ambulatory older adults who are at-risk of falling. The main questions it aims to answer are:

• Does task-specific balance training improve the ability to prevent falling when unexpected perturbations such as slips and trips occur, and/or improve balance control during self-initiated movements?
• Does task-specific balance training reduce real-life falls for 18 months after training?

Researchers will compare task-specific balance training with conventional balance training and treadmill perturbation-based training to examine how this novel intervention compares to established interventions for improving balance.

Participants who participate in the study will be asked to do the following:

• Complete a pre-training assessment of their balance control, and then be randomized to one of three training groups: 1) task-specific balance training, 2) treadmill perturbation-based training, and 3) conventional balance training
• Complete their assigned training protocol for 8 weeks (2x per week for a total of 16 sessions)
• Complete 2 post-training assessments of their balance control, the first being completed immediately after the training is completed, and the second being completed 18 months after the training is completed
• Wear a physical activity monitor for 18 months after completing the intervention to monitor their real life falls.