Almost one third of older adults fall at least once a year – and the effects go far beyond cuts and bruises, with some bad tumbles even leading to disability or death.
But scientists have found older people at a high risk of falling can be trained to stay on their feet, using a treadmill and virtual reality kit.
Those that received the training had 42 per cent fewer falls six months after using the VR system than those who had treadmill training, a new study has revealed.
Falls in adults aged 65 and over account for one to two per cent of all healthcare expenditure in wealthy countries and often lead to fear of falling, which can spiral into people avoiding leaving the house, becoming depressed and inactive, and developing muscle weakness and impaired balance, resulting in more falls and more social isolation.
To explore how to keep older people on their feet, researchers from five institutions in Belgium, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK, put 283 volunteers between the ages of 60 and 90 through their paces.
All the participants were able to walk at least five minutes unassisted and had fallen over at least twice in the six months prior to the study. Almost half of them had Parkinson’s disease, which can restrict people’s movement.
Just over half of the volunteers received training using virtual reality, which consisted of a modified Microsoft Kinect camera that captured the movement of participants' feet and projected it onto a screen in front of the treadmill, so that the volunteers could see their feet walking on the screen in real time.
The simulation included real-life obstacles such as puddles, pathways and ‘hurdles’ to reduce the risk of falling via training.
The researchers didn't use VR headsets such as the Oculus Rift because they needed the participants to be aware of their surroundings, Dr Anat Mirelman of Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Centre and the Sackler School of Medicine in Israel, told WIRED.
"With this type of population (older adults), we did not want to risk cyber sickness which often accompanies immersive systems and also, we wanted the participants to implicitly learn strategies of movements while walking on a treadmill," she said.
"With immersive systems, specifically headsets, it is quite difficult to walk without the feedback of the real world, it may be confusing for the person and the gait is more timid and less natural."
On average, participants in each group took part in 16 training 45-minute sessions over six weeks.
The results, published in The Lancet journal, found the incidence rate of falls decreased in both groups following training, but it was only notable in the group that had used the virtual reality simulation.
In the VR group, the incidence of falls decreased by 42 per cent.
Mirelman said: “Our approach combines treadmill exercise and virtual reality to help improve both physical mobility and cognitive aspects that are important for safe walking.
“We found that virtual reality plus treadmill training helped to reduce fall frequency and fall risk for at least six months after training.”
The biggest improvement was seen in participants with Parkinson's disease, and the researchers think this could be because virtual reality was able to help improve cognitive and motor skills that are affected in Parkinson's disease.
The scientists said the training could be used in gyms, rehabilitation centres or nursing homes to improve safe walking and prevent falls in older adults or people with disorders which affect movement.
However, Mirelman said: "Further studies will need to examine whether treadmill training plus virtual reality could be used as part of a prevention package to treat fall risk before falls become common and before injuries occur."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
