Effects of an Adapted Physical Activity With an Interactive Gaming Platform on Fear of Falling and Risk of Falling

Effects of an Adapted Physical Activity With an Interactive Gaming Platform on Fall Apprehension and Risk: A Randomized Controlled Trial

This study evaluates the effects of an adapted physical activity with an interactive gaming platform on fall apprehension and risks. Half of the participants will receive a rehabilitation program using the Medimoov gaming program, the other half will receive the standard rehabilitation program.

Medimoov is an innovative interactive gaming platform offering adapted physical activity. Like most serious games, it targets both physical and cognitive components. Studies that evaluate serious games lack an appropriate control group, thus this study aims to evaluate the efficacy of serious games played with the Medimoov platform on fear of falling and fall risks. This pilot study is an open randomized controlled trial in parallel groups with blind data collection for the primary outcome.

The intervention group will follow bi-weekly sessions with Medimoov. The control group will follow the usual rehabilitation program: the standard psychomotor therapy program.

Both interventions will be consistent with rehabilitation programs prescribed by participants' physicians. Each intervention, guided by a psychomotor therapist, will last eight weeks with bi-weekly sessions of 35 minutes.

Participants will be randomly assigned to one of the two groups. Three assessments will be conducted focusing on physical and cognitive capacities. The first assessment will be conducted five or fewer days before the beginning of the rehabilitation program, the second will occur during week 4 and the third one during week 8, at the end of the rehabilitation program. Assessments will be blinded: assessors will not know the assigned group of each participant.

Inclusion Criteria:

• To be at least 65 years old,
• To be able to give consent,
• French-speaking,
• To be able to stand upright in a bipedal position, feet together for a time greater than 10 seconds with/without an assistive device,
• To have a score ≥13 on the Short Fall Efficacy Scale (FES-I) (moderate fear of falling).

Exclusion Criteria:

• Not being able to answer the questionnaires,
• Not being able to correctly distinguish the elements on the screen,
• To be in palliative care,
• To be under a legal protection measure,
• To score under 16 at the Mini Mental State Examination,
• To have an acute pathology,
• To have had recent hip surgery (<2 months).