Kinematic Measures for Recovery Strategy Identification following an Obstacle-Induced Trip in Gait

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the kinematic measures determining balance outcome following an over-ground trip perturbation. 117 healthy older adults who experienced laboratory-induced trips were divided into loss of balance (LOB) and no LOB groups. The LOB group contained 27 fallers and 34 non-fallers, and the no LOB group contained 21 participants using cross-over strategy and 35 participants using obstacle-hit strategy. A 2-class hierarchical regression model for balance loss showed that margin of stabilty could determine the balance outcomes (LOB or not) with an overall accuracy of 92.7%. The 4-class model for recovery strategies showed that the combination of margin of stability, trunk angle, and COM velocity could determine 81.9% of strategies. Our findings would enhance intervention development for populations at risk of trip-induced falls.

Keywords:

• Loss of balance
• over-ground trip
• margin of stability
• balance control

Acknowledgements

We thank Jessica Pitts for her help editing this manuscript, and thank Yiru Wang, Rudri Purohit, and Lakshmi Kannan for their assitance with data collection.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by NIH R01 AG050672 (awarded to Tanvi Bhatt).