Characteristics of Unsuccessful Balance Reactive Responses to Lateral Loss of Balance in Older Adults.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

An effective reactive step response to an unexpected balance loss is an important factor that determines if a fall will happen. We investigated reactive step strategies and kinematics of unsuccessful balance recovery responses that ended with falls in older adults.

Methods

We compared the strategies and kinematics of reactive stepping after a lateral loss of balance, i.e., perturbations, between 49 older female adults who were able to successfully recover from perturbations (perturbation-related non-fallers, PNFs) and 10 female older adults who failed to recover (perturbation-related fallers, PFs). In addition, we compared the successful versus unsuccessful recovery responses of PFs matched to perturbation magnitude.

Results

The kinematics of the first re

SUBMITTER: Batcir S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11239142 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature