Perturbation Training Reduces Falls in People With AD

NCT ID: NCT05205980

Last Updated: 2025-12-15

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 30 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2023-04-28
• Study Completion Date: 2026-10-30

Brief Summary

This study will examine the overall capacity of people with Alzheimer's disease learning fall-resistant skills from perturbation training.

Detailed Description

Falls can cause injury and death in older adults. Those with Alzheimer's disease are at an even higher fall risk. Our goal is to test if people with mild Alzheimer's disease can learn fall prevention skills from the exposure to large-scale perturbations on a treadmill. Two groups with mild Alzheimer's disease will be enrolled. One group will attend a perturbation training session while the other group receives no training. Groups will then be exposed to perturbations on the ground immediately and three or six months after the training. Over six months after the training, daily-living falls will be tracked for both groups. The falls following the perturbations in the lab and daily-living all-cause falls will be compared between groups to test our specific aims: 1) to test if people with Alzheimer's disease can adapt to large-scale external perturbations and learn fall resistant motor skills; 2) to inspect whether people with Alzheimer's disease can retain motor skills learned in Aim 1; and 3) to determine if people with Alzheimer's disease can generalize fall resistant skills to different contexts (treadmill to overground, inside the lab to outside the lab).

Conditions

Alzheimer Disease

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: PREVENTION
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Training group

This arm will receive a single-session perturbation training treatment on a treadmill under the protection of a safety harness.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Perturbation training

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants will experience repeated perturbations mixed with non-perturbed trials on the treadmill with the protection by a harness.

Control group

This arm will not receive perturbation training but will go through harnessed walking on the same treadmill for the same time as the other group.

Group Type: SHAM_COMPARATOR

Perturbation training

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants will experience repeated perturbations mixed with non-perturbed trials on the treadmill with the protection by a harness.

Interventions

Perturbation training

Participants will experience repeated perturbations mixed with non-perturbed trials on the treadmill with the protection by a harness.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Participants must be at least 65 years old;
• Participants have a clinical diagnosis of probable AD;
• Participants can read and understand English;
• Participants must be able to walk independently at least 25 feet;
• Participants must be able to stand independently for at least 30 seconds;
• Participants must have a Monteral Cognitive Assessment score of 11-21 or Mini Mental Status Examination score between 18 and 23.

Exclusion Criteria

• Individuals have ever experienced perturbation training;
• Individuals have hypotension or uncontrolled hypertension;
• Individuals exhibit osteoporosis;
• Participants suffer from coexisting psychiatric disorders, or other neurological conditions, or injuries, etc.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 65 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 90 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

NIH

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Alzheimer's Association

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Georgia State University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Feng Yang, PhD

Associate Professor

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Feng Yang, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Georgia State University

Locations

Reminiscent

Valdosta, Georgia, United States

Site Status: RECRUITING

Countries

United States

Central Contacts

Feng Yang, PhD

Role: CONTACT

fyang@gsu.edu

404-413-8357

Facility Contacts

Debra Tann, Ed.D.

Role: primary

229-415-3333

Other Identifiers

H22487

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id