Multifactorial Assessment of Older Adults Able and Unable to Recover Balance During a Laboratory-induced Trip.

Abstract

Older adults are prone to falls, and identifying fallers and non-fallers from a set of fall-related variables is essential while establishing effective preventive programs. This study aimed to analyze if a set of parameters (i.e., strength, functional status, dynamic balance, gait, and obesity-related anthropometric measures) differ between older adults able and unable to recover from an induced trip. To analyze predictors among older adults able and unable to identify fallers and nonfallers. Thirty healthy old adults were tripped once during the mid-swing phase of the gait. The trip outcome was used as a criterion to assign participants to a recovery (REC; n=21; 71.2±5.7 years; 70.9±12.8 kg; 1.60±0.09 m) or a non-recovery group (NREC; n=9; 69.4±6.8 years; 85.7±11.8 kg; 1.59±0.08 m). The spatiotemporal gait parameters, functional mobility, dynamic balance, and isokinetic muscular function were measured. The NREC presented larger BMI (33.6±2.7 vs. 27.5±3.4 kg.m-2; p<0.05); greater time for the initiation phase on the voluntary step execution test (197.0±27.9 vs. 171.7±31.3s; p<0.05); lower plantarflexor (0.41±0.15 vs. 0.59±0.18 N.m; p<0.05), dorsiflexor (0.18±0.05 vs. 0.24±0.07 N.m; p<0.05), knee extensor (1.03±0.28 vs. 1.33±0.24 N.m; p<0.05) and knee flexor peak torques (0.50±0.15 vs. 0.64±0.13 N.m; p<0.05); and greater time up and go (8.0±0.8 vs. 7.4±0.7 s). The results showed that it is possible to identify fall risk components based on several fall-related parameters using a laboratory-induced trip as the outcome variable.