Abstract
Walking stability is an important factor that is related to working accidents at height. The understanding of the relationship between walking stability and walking conditions remains an unmet need. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of path height, width, and asymmetric conditions on the pressure and time information of the foot-ground interaction during walking. 12 subjects were required to walk at two height, three width, and asymmetric conditions. Plantar pressures during walking were measured with the F-scan insole sensors. The total pressures were normalized with body weight, and the temporal parameters were normalized with stance time. When the walking height increased, the plantar pressure at the “heel strike” phase did not change significantly, while that at “heel rise” and “toe off” phases significantly increased, and the “heel rise” occurred earlier, indicating a greater foot-ground interaction at the forefoot part of the sole. As the path width increased from 0.6 m to 1.2 m, the foot-ground interaction as well as the asymmetric effect approached to that of overground walking. The findings could help improve the risk assessment and footwear design.
Highlights
Working at height is one of the biggest causes of fatalities and major injuries
Fall from a height is the major accident type [1,2,3]. e spinal and head fractures can lead to severe disability or even death [4,5,6,7,8,9]. e recurrent mistake rate may even increase in people with accident experience. e regulation and funding to prevent falls from height have been evolving over the years; devices and trainings of fall prevention have been improved
It was reported that gait and balance ability can be improved through high-platform training [21, 22], but the mechanism was not clarified
Summary
Working at height is one of the biggest causes of fatalities and major injuries. Fall from a height is the major accident type [1,2,3]. The rate of accidental fall deaths remains high [10, 11]. Fall caused by the loss of balance is the most common accident during working at height [12,13,14,15]. It was reported that gait and balance ability can be improved through high-platform training [21, 22], but the mechanism was not clarified. It is important to explore the relation of gait and balance ability during working at height, through which valuable information for improving prevention strategies can be provided
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