Advisor Information
Nathaniel Hunt
Presentation Type
Poster
Start Date
1-3-2019 9:00 AM
End Date
1-3-2019 10:15 AM
Abstract
Falls pose a significant health hazard, resulting in devastating injuries like broken wrists, fractured hips, and traumatic brain injuries that exceed $50 billion in U.S. medical costs. To address these risks, biomechanists have subjected individuals to simulated slips in order to study the factors that lead to falls. These studies have focused on slips that happen immediately after heel-strike and are unnaturally restricted by the methods used to cause the slip. Therefore, the effects of unconstrained slips that occur throughout stance phase are unknown. To address this knowledge gap, we examined the relationship between the timing of slip onset and the distance that the slipped foot traveled, the direction that the slipped foot traveled, and the speed at which it slipped. We hypothesized that the timing of the delivered slip would notably relate to the distance, direction, and speed of the slips that result. Ten healthy, young adults performed 12 slips that were distributed across stance phase, all while wearing a safety harness and full-body marker set to track the body’s motion. We found significant, strong connections between the distance and direction of a slip and the time that it started, and a weak yet significant connection between onset time and slip speed. As slips begin later in stance, the sliding foot tends to travel shorter distances at slower rates in a direction that is increasingly opposite to the direction of walking. Altogether, these relationships suggest that slips occurring earlier in stance may be most disruptive to natural walking.
The Time of Slip Onset During Stance Influences the Characteristics of the Unconstrained Perturbation
Falls pose a significant health hazard, resulting in devastating injuries like broken wrists, fractured hips, and traumatic brain injuries that exceed $50 billion in U.S. medical costs. To address these risks, biomechanists have subjected individuals to simulated slips in order to study the factors that lead to falls. These studies have focused on slips that happen immediately after heel-strike and are unnaturally restricted by the methods used to cause the slip. Therefore, the effects of unconstrained slips that occur throughout stance phase are unknown. To address this knowledge gap, we examined the relationship between the timing of slip onset and the distance that the slipped foot traveled, the direction that the slipped foot traveled, and the speed at which it slipped. We hypothesized that the timing of the delivered slip would notably relate to the distance, direction, and speed of the slips that result. Ten healthy, young adults performed 12 slips that were distributed across stance phase, all while wearing a safety harness and full-body marker set to track the body’s motion. We found significant, strong connections between the distance and direction of a slip and the time that it started, and a weak yet significant connection between onset time and slip speed. As slips begin later in stance, the sliding foot tends to travel shorter distances at slower rates in a direction that is increasingly opposite to the direction of walking. Altogether, these relationships suggest that slips occurring earlier in stance may be most disruptive to natural walking.