Effects of Exergames on Vestibular Function in Healthy Community Dwellers.

May 18, 2020 updated by: University of Zurich

Effects of a Virtual Reality-based Dual-task Exercise on Vestibular Function in Healthy Community Dwellers. A Pilot Study

The aim is to assess the effects of virtual reality-based intervention on vestibular functions in healthy community dwellers.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Elderly usually experience an age-related type of vestibular disorder, which involves vertigo, dizziness and poor postural stability. These symptoms seem to contribute to the "geriatric syndrome", which describes a complex symptomatology. It usually has multiple causes and must be considered interdisciplinary. This study will only consider healthy elderly with an expected age-related degeneration of the vestibular system. In terms of restoring vestibular functioning, compensation can be classified into adaptation, substitution and habituation. Adaptation enhances the Vestibulo-ocular reflex, which is equivalent to restoration. Habituation on the other hand, accustoms the affected person to a conflicting situation, in order that the response of the Vestibulo-ocular reflex is avoided. Substitution is distinguished in literature between sensory and behavioral, in which the sensorial substitution transfers the importance given to proprioceptive and visual inputs and the behavioral substitution refers to avoidance strategies e.g. immobilization, increased blink reflex and prevention of head rotations. Slower gait speed may also be a method used by elderly for compensation during a task when the base of support is unstable. Considering recommendation future studies should incorporate examinations of functional gaze stability during typical daily tasks in more familiar settings as opposed to laboratory assessments. Increased head movement may disturb balance and the risk of falling may be raised while walking stairs. As head stability is challenged during stair descent, elderly with age-related visual and vestibular impairment have problems with completing this quotidian task. A way to consider these observations in vestibular rehabilitation is the use of a virtual reality environment, which provides a motivating and pleasant method to train and that includes exercises requiring head turns. Successful use of virtual reality in rehabilitation of vestibular patients has previously been implemented. However, these studies did not particularly to exercise head turns by completing an orientation task.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

12

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • ZH
      • Zurich, ZH, Switzerland, 8091
        • University Hospital Zurich, Directorate of Research and Education, Physiotherapy & Occupational Therapy Research

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

65 years and older (Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Healthy community dwellers Adult male and female participant's (≥65 years) Signed informed consent after being informed

Exclusion Criteria:

Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo Acute pain Walking disability (independent walking <10 meters) Uncontrolled cardiovascular disease (e.g.: uncontrolled blood pressure) Weakness due to neurological problems

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Exergame
The Senso is a training system (dividat, Schindellegi, Switzerland) for improving physical and cognitive function was used as exergame. With foot pushes participants triggered on a pressure-sensitive plate. The Senso game was projected with a beamer at white wall. To promote head movement during training the direction of the beamer was vertical tilted (± 15°) and horizontal turned (90°) with a remote controlled power panner.
In total, 10 sessions were accomplished including baseline and post intervention measurements. The remaining eight exercise sessions lasted 40 minutes, with an actual training duration of 20 minutes. This resulted in a cumulative total intervention exercise time of 160 minutes.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Dynamic Visual Acuity (DVA)
Time Frame: 30 minutes
The DVA is the measurement of visual acuity during head movement relative to baseline static visual acuity
30 minutes

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Functional Gait Assessment (FGA)
Time Frame: 15 minutes
The FGA is used to measure disturbances in balance and gait
15 minutes
Extended Timed Get-Up-And-Go (ETGUG)
Time Frame: 15 minutes
The time measured during each task and the overall time mirrors the functional mobility of the participant
15 minutes
Gait speed
Time Frame: 5 minutes
Time was measured in with a stopwatch as the participants walked in the central 6 m of the walkway.
5 minutes
Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ)
Time Frame: 5 minutes
The SSQ questionnaire assesses, cyber or virtual reality sickness
5 minutes

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Swanenburg Jaap, PhD, University Hospital Zurich, Directorate of Research and Education, Physiotherapy & Occupational Therapy Research

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

May 12, 2017

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 25, 2017

Study Completion (Actual)

July 10, 2017

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 17, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 17, 2017

First Posted (Actual)

May 19, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

May 19, 2020

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 18, 2020

Last Verified

May 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • BASEC 2016-1220

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

No

IPD Plan Description

Publication

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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