A small balance-training pilot helps shape a future falls trial
Researchers tested task difficulty, balance measurements and anxiety responses in healthy older adults to refine the design of a larger trial.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
The pilot found that older adults could generally perform the fall-resisting tasks, while identifying practical issues for a future trial. Faster and larger approaching obstacles were harder to avoid, and a calculated stability threshold did not consistently match perceived balance loss. The study did not establish that training reduced actual falls.
This small study involved healthy older adults and focused on task feasibility and measurement. The abstract reports no follow-up fall outcomes or evidence of effectiveness in preventing falls.
What researchers found
Anxiety during unpredictable balance disturbances
During treadmill tasks, greater unpredictability did not increase reported anxiety when introduced gradually; exact task duration and uncertainty estimates were not reported.
Designing a credible comparison
Most participants perceived weight-shifting exercises as balance training. That finding suggested these tasks might serve as a comparison activity in a future trial, although it did not show that they lacked effects on balance.
Checking what measurements capture
The calculated stability threshold did not consistently agree with participants' sense of losing balance or researchers' observations. This mismatch matters when choosing how to assess the ability to resist a balance disturbance.
The original publication
Design considerations for technology-assisted fall-resisting skills training trials in older adults: A pilot and feasibility study.
van der Hulst EG, Meijer K, Meyns P et al.
PLoS One · 2026
- PubMed ID
- 41875211
- Record checked
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