- ICH GCP
- US Clinical Trials Registry
- Clinical Trial NCT04219696
Determining the Optimal Dose of Reactive Balance Training After Stroke
Determining the Optimal Dose of Reactive Balance Training After Stroke - a Pilot Study
Falls in daily life are one of the most significant complications for people with stroke. Fall rates are particularly high soon after discharge from stroke rehabilitation. A new type of balance training, called reactive balance training (RBT), can reduce fall rates after discharge from stroke rehabilitation. In our previous study, RBT was implemented as part of routine care, and as a result, the dose of training was different for each participant; participants completed between one and twelve 30-minute sessions of RBT. Previous research in healthy older adults suggests that a single session of RBT is enough to lead to lasting changes in reactive balance control and reduce fall rates in daily life. It is not clear if the same is true for people with stroke, who have more severe impairments and might need a higher dose of training to achieve the same benefits.
The overall goal of this work is to determine the optimal dose of reactive balance training for people with stroke who are attending rehabilitation. This pilot study will determine the feasibility of a clinical trial to address this larger goal. People with sub-acute stroke will be randomly assigned to one of three groups: 1 session, 3 sessions, or 6 sessions of RBT. Each session will be 45 minutes long, and will occur as part of participants' routine out-patient rehabilitation. We will use our experiences with this pilot study to help design a larger study. Specifically, we will use this pilot study to answer the following questions: 1) what is the optimal sample size; 2) how long will it take to reach this sample size; 3) what outcome measures should be used; 4) how feasible is it to prescribe a specific dose of RBT to people with sub-acute stroke; and 5) what two intervention groups should be included in the larger trial?
Study Overview
Study Type
Enrollment (Estimated)
Phase
- Not Applicable
Contacts and Locations
Study Contact
- Name: David Jagroop, MSc
- Email: david.jagroop@uhn.ca
Study Contact Backup
- Name: Avril Mansfield, PhD
- Phone Number: 7831 416-597-3422
- Email: avril.mansfield@uhn.ca
Study Locations
-
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Ontario
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Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5G 2A2
- Recruiting
- Toronto Rehabilitation Institute
-
Contact:
- Avril Mansfield, PhD
- Phone Number: 7831 416-597-3422
- Email: avril.mansfield@uhn.ca
-
-
Participation Criteria
Eligibility Criteria
Ages Eligible for Study
Accepts Healthy Volunteers
Description
Inclusion criteria:
- Sub-acute stroke;
- Receiving out-patient rehabilitation at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute;
- Can stand independently for >30 seconds;
- Can walk with or without a gait aid (but without assistance of another person) for >10 metres; and
- Living in the community.
Exclusion Criteria:
- Completed reactive balance training during in-patient rehabilitation;
- Lower-extremity amputation, weight-bearing restrictions, recent lower-extremity injury or surgery (e.g., fracture), acute back or lower-limb pain, halo, aspen collar, history of fragility fracture and/or severe osteoporosis/osteopenia, contractures that prevent neutral hip or ankle;
- Activity restrictions following cardiac event/surgery, abnormal or unstable cardiovascular responses to exercise, arterial dissection;
- Severe spasticity in the legs;
- Cognitive impairment (i.e., unable to understand the purpose of training and/or to provide informed consent); and/or
- Acute illness (e.g., vomiting, fever), extreme obesity (exceeds safety harness weight limits), colostomy bags, indwelling catheter, infection, pressure sore on pelvis or trunk.
Study Plan
How is the study designed?
Design Details
- Primary Purpose: Treatment
- Allocation: Randomized
- Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
- Masking: Single
Arms and Interventions
Participant Group / Arm |
Intervention / Treatment |
---|---|
Active Comparator: 1 session
Participants will complete one 45-minute session of reactive balance training.
Participants will experience 40-60 perturbations during this session.
Participants will also complete 5 45-minute 'traditional' balance training sessions.
|
A research physiotherapist will oversee reactive balance training (RBT) to ensure consistent RBT delivery across participants.
Training strategies will be individualized to each participant, based on their balance impairments and rehabilitation goals.
The RBT program includes multi-directional 'internal' and 'external' balance perturbations.
Internal perturbations are achieved by asking the participant to complete tasks that challenge balance control, such that they lose balance when attempting to perform the task (e.g., kicking a soccer ball).
External perturbation are delivered manually using a push or pull from the physiotherapist.
As participants improve their reactive balance control, difficulty will be increased by shifting task requirements along a continuum from stable to mobile, and from predictable to unpredictable, and by increasing perturbation magnitude or imposing sensory or environmental challenges.
|
Experimental: 3 sessions
Participants will complete three 45-minute sessions of reactive balance training.
Participants will experience 40-60 perturbations during each session.
Participants will also complete 3 45-minute 'traditional' balance training sessions.
|
A research physiotherapist will oversee reactive balance training (RBT) to ensure consistent RBT delivery across participants.
Training strategies will be individualized to each participant, based on their balance impairments and rehabilitation goals.
The RBT program includes multi-directional 'internal' and 'external' balance perturbations.
Internal perturbations are achieved by asking the participant to complete tasks that challenge balance control, such that they lose balance when attempting to perform the task (e.g., kicking a soccer ball).
External perturbation are delivered manually using a push or pull from the physiotherapist.
As participants improve their reactive balance control, difficulty will be increased by shifting task requirements along a continuum from stable to mobile, and from predictable to unpredictable, and by increasing perturbation magnitude or imposing sensory or environmental challenges.
|
Experimental: 6 sessions
Participants will complete six 45-minute sessions of reactive balance training.
Participants will experience 40-60 perturbations during each session.
|
A research physiotherapist will oversee reactive balance training (RBT) to ensure consistent RBT delivery across participants.
Training strategies will be individualized to each participant, based on their balance impairments and rehabilitation goals.
The RBT program includes multi-directional 'internal' and 'external' balance perturbations.
Internal perturbations are achieved by asking the participant to complete tasks that challenge balance control, such that they lose balance when attempting to perform the task (e.g., kicking a soccer ball).
External perturbation are delivered manually using a push or pull from the physiotherapist.
As participants improve their reactive balance control, difficulty will be increased by shifting task requirements along a continuum from stable to mobile, and from predictable to unpredictable, and by increasing perturbation magnitude or imposing sensory or environmental challenges.
|
What is the study measuring?
Primary Outcome Measures
Outcome Measure |
Measure Description |
Time Frame |
---|---|---|
Rate of falls in daily life
Time Frame: 6 months post-discharge
|
Participants will be asked to report falls ("an event that results in a person coming to rest unintentionally on the ground or other lower level") in the 6 months post-training.
Participants will be provided with stamped, addressed postcards to mail to the research team every 2 weeks for 6 months post-training.
Postcards will contain a calendar, on which participants will record falls.
The research assistant will call participants who do not return the postcard to determine if any falls occurred.
The research assistant will contact participants reporting a fall to complete a short questionnaire determining the cause and consequences of the fall.
|
6 months post-discharge
|
Secondary Outcome Measures
Outcome Measure |
Measure Description |
Time Frame |
---|---|---|
Rate of accrual
Time Frame: Through study completion, an average of 18 months
|
Number of participants recruited per month
|
Through study completion, an average of 18 months
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Rate of missing data
Time Frame: Through study completion, an average of 18 months
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Number of complete datasets for each of the other pre-specified outcomes
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Through study completion, an average of 18 months
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Compliance with the intervention
Time Frame: Through study completion, an average of 18 months
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Number of prescribed training sessions attended
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Through study completion, an average of 18 months
|
Other Outcome Measures
Outcome Measure |
Measure Description |
Time Frame |
---|---|---|
Chedoke-McMaster Stroke Assessment
Time Frame: Pre-intervention (at admission), post-intervention (before discharge, approximately 4 weeks), and 6 months post-intervention
|
Construct: motor recovery.
Range: 1-7.
Higher scores indicate improved recovery.
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Pre-intervention (at admission), post-intervention (before discharge, approximately 4 weeks), and 6 months post-intervention
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Mini-Balance Evaluation Systems Test
Time Frame: Pre-intervention (at admission), post-intervention (before discharge, approximately 4 weeks), and 6 months post-intervention
|
Construct: Anticipatory balance control, reactive balance control, gait, and sensory orientation in balance.
Scale range: 0-28 (total), 0-6 (anticipatory balance control), 0-6 (reactive balance control), 0-10 (gait), 0-6 (sensory orientation).
Higher values represent improved outcome.
The total score is created by adding the sub-scale scores
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Pre-intervention (at admission), post-intervention (before discharge, approximately 4 weeks), and 6 months post-intervention
|
Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale
Time Frame: Pre-intervention (at admission), post-intervention (before discharge, approximately 4 weeks), and 6 months post-intervention
|
Construct: balance confidence.
Scale range: 0-100.
Higher values represent improved outcome
|
Pre-intervention (at admission), post-intervention (before discharge, approximately 4 weeks), and 6 months post-intervention
|
Reactive balance control following novel unpredictable postural perturbation
Time Frame: Pre-intervention (at admission), post-intervention (before discharge, approximately 4 weeks), and 6 months post-intervention
|
Participants will be outfitted with reflective markers, and will complete 8-10 walking trials on a movable platform.
On one trial, the platform will move forward suddenly on heel strike to trigger a slip-like perturbation.
On another trial, the platform will move backward suddenly on toe-off to trigger a trip-like perturbation.
The platform will only move during these two trials, such that the perturbation will be unpredictable to participants.
These perturbations differ from what will be used during training, and will measure transfer of training to novel and ecological loss of balance.
Biomechanical stability when responding to the perturbation will be measured using an established method that considers the distance between the centre of mass and base of support; in general, a more posteriorly- (slip) or anteriorly-located (trip) centre of mass is considered less stable.
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Pre-intervention (at admission), post-intervention (before discharge, approximately 4 weeks), and 6 months post-intervention
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Physical Activity Scale for Individuals with Physical Disabilities
Time Frame: Average of three scores at approximately 2-, 4- and 6-months post-discharge
|
Construct: physical activity in daily life.
Scale range: not applicable (the maximum score that is technically achievable would not be feasible).
Higher scores represent improved outcome
|
Average of three scores at approximately 2-, 4- and 6-months post-discharge
|
Subjective Index of Physical and Social Outcome
Time Frame: Average of three scores at approximately 2-, 4- and 6-months post-discharge
|
Construct: participation Scale range: 0-40 (total); 0-20 (social sub-scale), 0-20 (physical sub-scale).
Higher scores represent improved outcome.
The total score is the sum of the sub-scale scores
|
Average of three scores at approximately 2-, 4- and 6-months post-discharge
|
Collaborators and Investigators
Sponsor
Investigators
- Principal Investigator: Avril Mansfield, PhD, University Health Network, Toronto
Publications and helpful links
Study record dates
Study Major Dates
Study Start (Actual)
Primary Completion (Estimated)
Study Completion (Estimated)
Study Registration Dates
First Submitted
First Submitted That Met QC Criteria
First Posted (Actual)
Study Record Updates
Last Update Posted (Actual)
Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria
Last Verified
More Information
Terms related to this study
Additional Relevant MeSH Terms
Other Study ID Numbers
- 19-6001
Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)
Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?
Drug and device information, study documents
Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product
Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product
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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