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Trial registered on ANZCTR

Registration number

ACTRN12607000625471

Ethics application status

Approved

Date submitted

4/12/2007

Date registered

6/12/2007

Date last updated

6/12/2007

Type of registration

Retrospectively registered

Titles & IDs

Public title

The effect of a specific balance-strategy training program in women aged 40-60 years

Scientific title

An Randomised Controlled Trial to identify the effect of a specific balance strategy training program for improving balance, postural stability, mobility, health and wellbeing in asymptomatic women aged 40-60 years.

Universal Trial Number (UTN)

Trial acronym

Linked study record

Health condition

Health condition(s) or problem(s) studied:

Fall prevention
Healthy Ageing
Lifestyle change
Balance

Condition category

Condition code

Physical Medicine / Rehabilitation

Physiotherapy

Public Health

Health promotion/education

Intervention/exposure

Study type

Interventional

Description of intervention(s) / exposure

Specific Balance Strategy Exercise Program. Subjects in the intervention group will attend a one hour twice-weekly specific balance-strategy training program for 12 weeks. The program will be delivered using work-stations that target the multiple elements of balance that are integral to efficient balance and mobility. Content of this program will include functional strength training and flexibility exercises that load trunk and lower limb muscles in all planes of movement, exercises for postural control and tasks that challenge medio-lateral stability and work participants at the limits of their stability; tasks that foster the use of ankle, hip, stepping and suspension strategies along with speed and efficient reaction times will be used. The program and tasks will be progressed by adding surface and visual challenges and by adding dual / multiple tasks.

Intervention code [1]

Prevention

Intervention code [2]

Rehabilitation

Intervention code [3]

Lifestyle

Comparator / control treatment

Normal home-based chores and or walking no more than twice a week, self paced, not receiving any program.

Control group

Active

Outcomes

Primary outcome [1]

Clinical and laboratory balance measures
Clinical measures include functional reach (Duncan et al, 1990) measures reaching forward to the limits of stability from a bilateral stance position;lateral reach with right and left hands (Brauer et al 1999) measures reaching sideways to the limits of stability from a bilateral stance position;the functional step test with right and left foot (Hill et al 1996) measures speed of performing a dynamic standing task with the number of repeated steps on and of a block 7.5 cm in height, in 15 seconds recorded; timed up and go (TUG) test (Shumway-Cook et al, 2000) measures the time taken to stand up from a chair, walk three metres as quickly and safely as possible past a line on the floor, turn around, walk back to the chair and sit down with the back against the chair; time up and go cognitive test (Shumway-Cook et al 2000) measures the time taken to complete the TUG test while the subject counts backward by three from a randomly selected number between 20 and 100;rapid stepping test (Mendall & Alexander, 2000) measures the time taken to make 24 random steps as fast as possible under the tester's command; timed tandem walk measures the time taken to complete 10 tandem steps forward, backwards and then with eyes open and closed (Fregley et al, 1968)

Laboratory measures of postural stability will be measured by recording velocity of sway using the Balance Master force-plate system (Neurocom, Balance Master 6.0) while the protocol for the modified Clinical Test for the Sensory Integration of Balance (mCTSIB) (Shumway-Cook and Horak, 1986) and Single Limb Stance (Bohannon et al, 1984) are carried out.

Modified Clinical test for sensory integration of balance (mCTSIB) involves standing on a firm surface (eyes open, eyes closed) and then on a foam surface (eyes open, eyes closed). The test has established validity (Alhanti et al, 1997; Di Fabio et al, 1990; Cohen, 1993; Newton, 1995; Teasdale et al 1991), retest and inter-tester reliability (Liston et al, 1996) and is a valid measure of changes in postural stability across the 40 to 60 age period (Low Choy et al, 2003). The test manipulates the senses and determines reliance on vision under conditions of proprioceptive conflict. When the propriocetpive system is challenged by standing on a high-density foam pad with eyes closed, the vestibular system assists to resolve this conflict and maintain postural stability. When the vestibular system is inefficient, increased postural sway and/or a fall may result.

Single limb stance test (Bohannon et al, 1984, Newton 1989) with right foot with eyes open (EO) and eyes closed (EC);left foot with EO and EC
This test challenges balance with the narrower base of support condition and with the removal of vision, reveals those subject reliant on vision for balance. This test is important to include as the single limb stance test has been shown to be an important predictor of injurious (serious) falls in older people (Vellas et al, 1997).

Timepoint [1]