Visual feedback during treadmill walking improves balance for older adults: A preliminary report

The majority of falls occur during walking. This begs the question, “Why are most balance training exercises performed when standing still?” Visual feedback for balance training is becoming more prevalent in rehabilitation, but is often performed while standing still. Five subjects have completed an eight week intervention study, part of an ongoing randomized controlled clinical trial. All subjects are tested for balance and walking ability at the beginning, middle and end of the eight week period using clinical tests to assess balance ability. Preliminary results suggest that balance improves only for the experimental group.