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✦ The Dispatch

Turns and Turn-Related Falls: Stepping on a Rotating Platform as a Potential Approach to Foster Adapted Muscular and Neural Plasticity in Fragile Persons and Patients with Motor Impairment

A dispatch from PubMed — filed

Falls remain the leading cause of injury-related death among older adults, with turning accident often producing the most severe consequences, such as hip fractures and a resulting decline in independence. Despite curved-path walking accounting for the majority of daily locomotion, most interventions insufficiently target the coordinated action of lower limb, pelvic and trunk muscles underlying safe turning....

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✦ The floor

Discussion

Signed responses from readers of the wire.

Clinical Takeaway

Rotating platform training is a proposed but not yet clinically validated intervention; audiologists and vestibular rehabilitation specialists should monitor emerging trials before adopting it into practice.

Why It Matters

Turn-related falls are a major injury risk in older adults and vestibular patients, and identifying targeted training strategies could meaningfully reduce fall incidence in these populations.

Key Points
  1. 01Turning movements account for a disproportionate share of falls in older and motor-impaired individuals.
  2. 02Rotating platform training is proposed as a method to build muscular and neural adaptability.
  3. 03Review covers biomechanical and neuroplasticity rationale for the intervention.
  4. 04No large-scale clinical trials are cited validating the approach.
  5. 05Relevant to vestibular rehabilitation and fall-prevention programming.
Claims & Evidence

Turning movements are a leading cause of falls in fragile older adults.

studysupported

Rotating platform training can foster muscular and neural plasticity in motor-impaired patients.

opinionpartially supported
Research metadata
PMID
42512536
DOI
10.3390/brainsci16070762.
Journal
Brain Sciences
Publication type
review
Evidence level
5
Population
Older adults and patients with motor impairment at risk of turn-related falls
Intervention
Rotating platform balance training

Primary outcomes

Muscular plasticity; Neural plasticity; Fall risk reduction during turning

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