Protective Step Training in People with PD and Postural Disturbances

Protective Step Training in People with PD and Postural Disturbances Protective Step Training in People with PD and Postural Disturbances The primary goal of this project is to assess the preliminary effectiveness of a promising, novel, and focused intervention (protective step training) to improve balance and reduce falls in people with PD and postural disturbances. A secondary goal is to understand which baseline patient characteristics predict responsiveness to treatment. As such, this work will enhance clinicians ability to treat balance disturbances in people with PD by informing: 1) the effectiveness of a promising rehabilitative intervention, and 2) the selection of the participants that will be most responsive to treatment. Critically, the protective step training (or perturbation training) described in this proposal can be quickly deployed in the clinic at minimal cost. Therefore, if shown to be effective via this and subsequent trials, this approach can be easily integrated into care, immediately impacting a large number of people with PD.