Approximately one in three older adults fall annually and it is the primary cause of traumatic injury in older adults. Prevention of falls in older adult is a significant public health priority, as one of the Healthy People 2020 goals is to reduce the rate of emergency department visits due to falls by 10%. While exercise and balance programs have been shown to be effective in reducing fall risk, maintaining behavior change is known to be difficult. Thus additional interventions need to be validated to add to our current armamentarium to reduce falls in older adults. Cognitive training (CT) involves exercises that target specific cognitive tasks, such as memory or processing speed. It has been speculated that routinely performing such tasks may increase functional ability. Recent work has pointed to an increased risk of falls in community-dwelling older adults who have alterations in specific cognitive tasks. Thus the purpose of the proposed study is to demonstrate the feasibility and to explore the effectiveness of a CT intervention to reduce risk and incidence of fall and improve outcomes up to 1 month post-intervention in a group of non-demented community dwelling older adults at risk for fall.
Up to 40 percent of community dwelling older adults experience a fall at least once a year, and there are significant negative consequences of falling, even in those who are not injured. There is a need to seek additional, complementary interventions to reduce the risk of falls and improve health-related quality of life in community-dwelling older adults. This study will trial a cognitive intervention to reduce falls/fall risk in sample of at risk elders.
