Fall prevention by reactive balance training on a perturbation treadmill: is it feasible for prefrail and frail geriatric patients? A pilot study

PURPOSE: Prefrail and frail geriatric patients are at high risk of falling. Perturbation-based balance training on a treadmill appears to be highly effective, but there are no studies in prefrail and frail geriatric hospital patients. The aim of the work is to characterize the study population in whom reactive balance training on a perturbation treadmill was feasible. METHODS: The study is recruiting patients with at least one fall event in the past year (age ≥ 70). The patients complete a minimum of 60-min treadmill training with/without perturbations on at least 4 occasions. RESULTS: Until now, 80 patients (mean age 80 ± 5) took part in the study. More than half of the participants had some cognitive impairment with < 24 pts. (median MoCA 21 pts.), 35% were prefrail and 61% were frail. The drop-out rate was initially 31% and was reduced to 12% after adding a short pre-test on the treadmill. CONCLUSION: Reactive balance training on a perturbation treadmill is feasible for prefrail and frail geriatric patients. Its effectiveness in fall prevention in this population needs to be proven. TRIAL REGISTRATION: German Clinical trial register (DRKS-ID: DRKS00024637 on 24.02.2021).