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Researchers on the College of California San Diego have revealed promising outcomes from a research evaluating the college’s “Strong Foundations” program, a digitally delivered fall prevention initiative for older adults. The findings, just lately revealed in JMIR Growing older, emphasize this system’s effectiveness in bettering posture, stability and power—key components in decreasing fall threat.
“This study showcases the potential of accessible, online exercise programs to significantly enhance physical function for older adults,” stated Ryan Moran, M.D., M.P.H., affiliate scientific professor at UC San Diego College of Medication. “Online delivery of exercise interventions offers some exciting and enticing prospects, as not only can this platform eliminate barriers related to difficulty with transportation and concerns about participating in conventional gym environments, it can also bring highly qualified experts to individuals who are most in need, and do so safely.”
Falls are the main reason for unintended loss of life and mobility-related incapacity amongst older adults, with 1 in 4 people over age 65 experiencing a fall yearly. These dangers are exacerbated in rural areas, the place entry to conventional train amenities is restricted. The Robust Foundations program addresses these challenges by offering a protected, structured train routine accessible from members’ properties.
The once-weekly (60 minutes),12-week on-line program combines postural alignment, stability workouts and power coaching. One of many novel options of this system is the supply of semi-individualized instruction in actual time inside a small group setting. Semi-individualized instruction is consideration given to a person inside the group course designed to right train kind.
Utilizing a quasi-experimental design, the research included 92 members—aged 60 and older—who have been stratified by fall threat stage utilizing the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s Stopping Aged Accidents, Deaths and Accidents (STEADI) questionnaire. A complete of 55 low-risk and 37 moderate-risk members have been recruited.
Each low- and moderate-risk teams confirmed enhancements in posture (as much as 36% for measures like Occiput to Wall Distance—a measurement used to display screen for extreme outward curvature of the backbone), bodily power (as indicated by the Chair Stand—the motion of sitting down on a chair after which standing again up), and different metrics. Notably, older adults at average fall threat skilled the best beneficial properties, significantly in posture and bodily power.
“The improvements in posture alone are particularly noteworthy, given their strong correlation with fall risk and overall mobility,” Moran added.
David Wing, M.S., senior scientific analysis supervisor on the Herbert Wertheim College of Public Well being and Human Longevity Science, emphasised the broader implications of the findings: “Our findings clearly demonstrate the potential to deliver an effective fall prevention program for older adults through a technological interface.”
The researchers recommend that future research discover the potential of deploying this intervention in populations which are of a decrease general socio-economic standing and extra distant from the situation of intervention deployment. Additional, growing these supplies into different languages in a culturally acceptable method might increase the attain to different populations who would profit from the chance to obtain at-home fall threat coaching.
Further co-authors on the research embody Jeanne F. Nichols, Hava Barkai, Olivia Culbert, Daniel Moreno, Michael Higgins, Anna O’Brien, Mariana Peres, and Hope Davey at UC San Diego.
Extra info:
David Wing et al, Constructing Robust Foundations: Nonrandomized Interventional Examine of a Novel, Digitally Delivered Fall Prevention Program for Older Adults, JMIR Growing older (2025). DOI: 10.2196/68957
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Digital program reduces fall threat and boosts power in older adults (2025, February 26)
retrieved 26 February 2025
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