KEEP CONTROL was an EU-funded industrial academic initial training network between 2017 and 2021 towards specific diagnosis and treatment of age-related gait and balance deficits. It trained 13 PhD students in 12 three-year positions in the area of gait and balance deficits in older adults.
Balance and gait deficits are ubiquitous among the older population, and lead to an enormous personal, occupational and health care burden. Emerging pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions to date have only had small to moderate effects on these deficits. This is likely due to remaining fundamental questions on underlying mechanisms and treatment. Together with their supervisors who are experts in the fields of clinical, biomechanical and neuroscience research as well as experts from industry, the PhD fellows in KEEP CONTROL investigated different aspects of age-related gait and balance deficits.
Overall, all scientific objectives not affected or limited by the COVID-19 pandemic were achieved or even outperformed. This is also reflected in the number of peer-reviewed publications already available at the end of the project, and in the number of publications that are a cooperation between KEEP CONTROL partners. Many of these papers were published in prestigious scientific journals. The close collaboration between the KEEP CONTROL partners, and in particular the fellows, is also reflected in the lively (virtual) social activity, e.g. the blog maintained independently by the fellows (
https://keepcontrolhorizon2020.wordpress.com/(si apre in una nuova finestra)).
Main scientific highlights of KEEP CONTROL are:
- the development and validation of multiple new algorithms for the detection of mobility in the usual environment with wearable sensors in the elderly and neurologically ill;
- the ML-based analyses of large datasets in walking and other mobility parameters in the elderly for a better understanding of balance disorders and falls;
- the investigation of gait parameters for the differential diagnosis of early Parkinson's disease versus controls;
- the confirmation and further development of the concept of "daily function" specifically for the elderly and neurologically ill;
- the recognition that specific dual-tasks can lead to an overload of brain capacity;
- showing that perturbation training improves reactive gait performance, which is relevant for keeping control after an external influence;
- detecting gait events during robot-assisted gait training, to trigger functional electrical stimulation in the future;
- the neurophysiological and behavioural evidence that an executive control deficit can trigger freezing of gait.
Taken together, KEEP CONTROL served as a facilitator and catalyst for a unique network of young and advanced researchers in the field of balance assessment in the elderly, which has developed very actively and successfully in the 4 years of funding, and will live on for a long time, not only through the currently presented results, but also through the collaborations and friendships that have developed.
