Can Entertaining Action-video Games Enhance Dynamic Visual Function and Improve Balance? A Randomized Controlled Trial.

February 22, 2018 updated by: Allen MY Cheong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Can Entertaining Action-video Games Enhance Dynamic Visual Functions and Improve Balance? A Randomized Controlled Trial.

This project is aimed to find out whether action video games can enhance dynamic visual function and improve balance function in the community-dwelling older adults. It is also aimed to examine the relationship between dynamic visions and balance functions.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Balance control is an important component even in a very simple daily task like walking. However, as we age, our physical and visual function would gradually deteriorate even in the absence of health or eye problems. Improving elderly balance control through different training is one way to prevent falls. In our project, we investigate the use of action video games, which is easy-to-find and entertaining, as a visual function trainer to improve balance of older adults.

We hypothesize that the training would show an improvement in both balance and dynamic vision. Our primary hypothesis is that postural sway in static and dynamic balance measures will improve after action video-game intervention. For secondary outcome measures, we hypothesize that the training will improve dynamic visual function (as measured by dynamic visual acuity and dynamic contrast sensitivity), and visual attention measures (as measured by useful field of view, multiple object tracking and spatial attention).

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

160

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

  • China
      • Hong Kong, China
        • Allen MY Cheong

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

60 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Ability to understand and speak Cantonese
  • No formal training or regular practice of balance function (e.g. Tai-chi)
  • Little and preferably no video-game experience
  • Best corrected distance acuity of 0.2 logMAR or better

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Any diagnosed ocular diseases and ocular-motor abnormalities
  • Suffering form severe medical problems or self reported neurological or cognitive disorders
  • Suffering from physical impairments or physical limitations restricting them from training
  • Having self reported vestibular or cerebellar dysfunction, history of vertigo or severe hearing loss
  • Suffering from crippling arthritis, or a recent fracture of lower limb
  • Planned major surgery during the trial

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: Other
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Placebo Comparator: Control Group
Receive leisure activities (e.g. reading, web-surfing, playing chess/ Mahjong) Twenty hours (2-3 sessions per week, 1.5 hours per session)
Behavioral: Control
20 hours leisure activities
Active Comparator: Intervention Group 1
Receive slow motion Nintendo Wii video games Twenty hours ( 2-3 sessions per week, 1.5 hours per session)
Behavioral: Slow-paced action video game
20 hours slow-paced action video games
Active Comparator: Intervention Group 2
Receive fast motion Nintendo Wii video games (e.g. shooting game) Twenty hours ( 2-3 sessions per week, 1.5 hours per session)
Behavioral: Fast-paced action video game
20 hours fast-paced action video games

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Static and dynamic postural sway on forced platform
Time Frame: Change from baseline at week 8 and change from baseline at week 16
  1. Static Balance - postural sway when standing on firm or foam surface.

  2. Dynamic Balance:

    1. Limits of stability (LOS)
    2. Sequential weight shifting test (SWS)
Change from baseline at week 8 and change from baseline at week 16

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Grating visual acuity at different moving speeds
Time Frame: Change from baseline at week 8 and change from baseline at week 16
Dynamic visual function measure - Grating visual acuity is measured with different moving speeds
Change from baseline at week 8 and change from baseline at week 16
Useful Field of View (UFOV)
Time Frame: Change from baseline at week 8 and change from baseline at week 16
One of the visual attention measures - Useful Field of View (UFOV)
Change from baseline at week 8 and change from baseline at week 16
Multiple tracking objects (MOT)
Time Frame: Change from baseline at week 8 and change from baseline at week 16
One of the visual attention measures - Multiple tracking objects (MOT)
Change from baseline at week 8 and change from baseline at week 16

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Collaborators

University of California, Berkeley
University of Waterloo

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Allen MY Cheong, PhD, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

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

September 1, 2014

Primary Completion (Actual)

February 1, 2017

Study Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2017

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 24, 2014

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 26, 2014

First Posted (Estimate)

September 30, 2014

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 23, 2018

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 22, 2018

Last Verified

February 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • K-ZK 93

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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