Abstract
Falling is a frequent cause of serious injury in older adults and trips are a dominant cause of falls in this rapidly growing population. Although there are few laboratory protocols that induce actual trips, there are many protocols that utilize surrogate tasks. These surrogate tasks, which are time-critical but do not involve an obstacle, appear to share a number of biomechanical characteristics with stepping responses following a trip. However, although rapid and safe negotiation of the obstacle and restoration of dynamic equilibrium are common requisites for success, we expected that stepping response kinematics during a successful recovery from a trip over a previously unseen obstacle would be substantially different than those of surrogate tasks without an obstacle. Unexpected trips were induced in 13 older men and women by an obstacle, the presence of which the subjects were previously unaware. Selected kinematics of the leading and trailing limb stepping responses during recovery from the induced trip were compared to those of two surrogate tasks that did not involve an obstacle. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed that step height, step length, peak horizontal velocity, and peak vertical velocity of the leading and trailing limbs were significantly different during recovery from the induced trip compared to the surrogate tasks. These between-task performance differences may limit the extent to which performance of the surrogate tasks accurately and precisely reflect the potential to recover dynamic equilibrium following a trip. Therefore, these findings may be applicable in the design of new or modification of existing interventions to reduce falls in older adults.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Chou LS, Draganich LF (1997) Stepping over an obstacle increases the motions and moments of the joints of the trailing limb in young adults. J Biomech 30:331–337
Cumming RG, Klineberg RJ (1994) Fall frequency and characteristics and the risk of hip fractures. J Am Geriatr Soc 42:774–778
Donaldson LJ, Cook A, Thomson RG (1990) Incidence of fractures in a geographically defined population. J Epidemiol Community Health 44:241–245
Eng JJ, Winter DA, Patla AE (1994) Strategies for recovery from a trip in early and late swing during human walking. Exp Brain Res 102:339–349
Erni T, Dietz V (2001) Obstacle avoidance during human walking: learning rate and cross-modal transfer. J Physiol 534:303–312
Grabiner MD, Koh TJ, Lundin T, Jahnigen DW (1993) Kinematics of recovery from a stumble. J Gerontol 48:M97–M102
Grabiner MD, Feuerbach JW, Jahnigen DW (1996) Successful recovery from a trip: control of the trunk during the initial phase following perturbation. J Biomechanics 29:735–744
Hess F, Van Hedel HJ, Dietz V (2003) Obstacle avoidance during human walking: H-reflex modulation during motor learning. Exp Brain Res 151:82–89
Krell J, Patla AE (2002) The influence of multiple obstacles in the travel path on avoidance strategy. Gait Posture 16:15–19
Madhok R, Bhopal RS (1992) Coping with an upper limb fracture? A study of the elderly. Public Health 106:19–28
Medell JL, Alexander NB (2000) A clinical measure of maximal and rapid stepping in older women. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 55:M429–M433
Miall RC, Wolpert DM (1996) Forward models for physiological motor control. Neural Networks 9:1265–1279
Norton R, Campbell J, Lee-Joe T, Robinson E, Butler M (1997) Circumstances of falls resulting in hip fractures among older people. J Am Geriatr Soc 45:1108–1112
Nyberg L, Gustafson Y, Berggren D, Brännström, Bucht G (1996) Falls leading to femoral neck fractures in lucid older people. J Am Geriatr Soc 44:156–160
Owings TM, Pavol MJ, Foley KT, Grabiner MD (2000) Measures of postural stability are not predictors of recovery from large postural disturbances in healthy older adults. J Am Geriatr Soc 48:42–50
Owings TM, Pavol MJ, Grabiner MD (2001) Mechanisms of failed recovery following postural perturbations on a motorized treadmill mimic those associated with an actual forward trip. Clin Biomech 16:813–819
Patla AE, Rietdyk S, Martin C, Prentice S (1996) Locomotor patterns of the leading and the trailing limbs as solid and fragile obstacles are stepped over: some insights into the role of vision during locomotion. J Mot Behav 28:35–47
Patla AE, Vickers JN (1997) Where and when do we look as we approach and step over an obstacle in the travel path? Neuroreport 8:3661–3665
Pavol MJ, Owings TM, Foley KT, Grabiner MD (1999) Gait characteristics as risk factors for falling from trips induced in older adults. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 54:M583–M590
Pavol MJ, Owings TM, Foley KT, Grabiner MD (2001) Mechanisms leading to a fall from an induced trip in healthy older adults. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 56A:M428–M437
Robinovitch SN, Heller B, Lui A, Cortez J (2002) Effect of strength and speed of torque development on balance recovery with the ankle strategy. J Neurophysiol 88:613–620
Schillings AM, Van Wezel BMH, Duysens J (1996) Mechanically induced stumbling during human treadmill walking. J Neurosci Methods 67:11–17
Schillings AM, Van Wezel BMH, Mulder Th, Duysens J (2000) Muscular responses and movement strategies during stumbling over obstacles. J Neurophysiol 83:2093–2102
van den Bogert AJ, Pavol MJ Grabiner MD (2002) Response time is more important than walking speed for the ability of older adults to avoid a fall after a trip. J Biomech 35:199–205
van Hedel HJ, Biedermann M, Erni T, Dietz V (2002) Obstacle avoidance during human walking: transfer of motor skill from one leg to the other. J Physiol 543:709–717
Wojcik LA, Thelen DG, Schultz AB, Ashton-Miller JA, Alexander NB (2001) Age and gender differences in peak lower extremity joint torques and ranges of motion used during single-step balance recovery from a forward fall. J Biomech 34:67–73
Young BT, Rayan GM (2000) Outcome following nonoperative treatment of displaced distal radius fractures in low-demand patients older than 60 years. J Hand Surg [Am] 25:19–28
Acknowledgements
Funding was provided by National Institute of Aging, RO1AG10557 (to MDG). The authors wish to acknowledge the prominent contributions of Tammy M. Owings and Michael J. Pavol in the data collection and analysis.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Troy, K.L., Grabiner, M.D. The presence of an obstacle influences the stepping response during induced trips and surrogate tasks. Exp Brain Res 161, 343–350 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-004-2078-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-004-2078-8