CatchU: A Quantitative Multisensory Falls-Assessment Study

Study Summary

The ability to successfully integrate information across sensory systems is a vital aspect of functioning in the real world. To date, only a few studies have investigated the clinical translational value of multisensory integration processes. Previous work has linked the magnitude of visual-somatosensory integration (measured behaviorally using simple reaction time tasks) to important cognitive (attention) and motor (balance, gait, and falls) outcomes in healthy older adults. While multisensory integration effects have been measured across a wide array of populations using various sensory combinations and different neuroscience approaches, a gold standard for quantifying multisensory integration has been lacking. The investigator recently developed a step-by-step protocol for administering and calculating multisensory integration effects in an effort to facilitate innovative and novel translational research across diverse clinical populations and age-ranges. However, patients with severe medical conditions and/or mobility limitations often experience difficulty traveling to research facilities or joining time-demanding research protocols. Using the aforementioned protocol, the study team invented a mobile multisensory falls-assessment iPhone app called CatchU to facilitate physician discussion and counseling of falls in older adults during clinical visits (e.g., annual wellness visits with a subsequent telehealth call), in an attempt to alleviate disability, promote independence, and increase quality of life for older adults. The investigator team has provided a cross-sectional research proposal for a pilot study of 300 patients (over a 24-month period) in order to demonstrate acceptable-to-excellent predicative accuracy of CatchU for identifying older adults at-risk for falls.

Primary Outcome

Information about falls (answers to questions regarding whether the participant has had a fall in the past 1 year or past 2 months after study enrollment) will be collected. If a fall is endorsed during the interview, further information regarding when and where the fall occurred and whether it led to a major injury or hospitalization will also be collected. The relationship of multisensory integration performance on CatchU with history of falls in the past year (baseline) and incident falls ov

Conditions Studied

Interventions

• OTHER CatchU Intervention

Study Locations (1)