Modified stepping behaviour during outdoor winter walking increases resistance to forward losses of stability.

ABSTRACT: Healthy humans are proficient at maintaining stability when faced with diverse walking conditions, however, the control strategies that lead to this proficiency are unclear. Previous laboratory-based research has predominantly concluded that corrective stepping is the main strategy, but whether this finding holds when facing everyday obstacles outside of the laboratory is uncertain. We investigated changes in gait stability behaviour when walking outdoors in the summer and winter, hypothesizing that as ground conditions worsened in the winter, the stepping strategy would be hindered. Stability would then be maintained through compensatory strategies such as with ankle torques and trunk rotation. Data was collected in the summer and winter using inertial measurement units to collect kinemat

SUBMITTER: Best AN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10209205 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature