Dr Wayne CHAN, Member of the Mental Health Research Centre (MHRC) and Assistant Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, was awarded a grant of about HK$1.5M from the General Research Fund (GRF) of the University Grants Committee (UGC), for his project “Investigating the effects of step training and the mediating effects of prefrontal cortex functioning in older adults with mild dementia: a randomised wait-list controlled trial”.
The project aims to design a step-training programme for older adults with mild dementia and evaluate its effectiveness in fall prevention. The programme requires older adults to perform stepping and visuospatial tasks concurrently. The researcher will investigate the programme’s association with prefrontal cortex functioning and fall of older adults. The project will help understand the mechanism that affects the effectiveness of the step-training programme, and will provide empirical evidence for the use of step training to reduce the risk of falls in older adults with mild dementia.