Citation

Moon Y, Bishnoi A, Sun R, Shin JC, Sosnoff JJ. J. Biomech. 2019; 83: 291-297.

Affiliation

Department of Kinesiology and Community Health, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jbiomech.2018.12.002

PMID

30553440

Abstract

Falls are common and potentially disastrous for older adults. A novel approach that could augment current fall prevention procedures is to teach older adults movement strategies to reduce the risk of injury. The purpose of the study was to determine whether older adults can learn a movement strategy ("tuck-and-roll") that reduces fall impact severity. Learning was quantified with short-term acquisition, bilateral transfer and 1-week-retention. 14 healthy older individuals participated (63.9 ± 5.6 years) in the investigation. Participants were randomly assigned into either training group (n = 7) or active control group (n = 7). All participants performed standardized sideway falls at baseline, immediately post intervention and 1-week-retention tests. During the falling assessments, kinetic and kinematic impact severity parameters were measured. The results for short-term learning revealed that the training group showed greater reduction in hip impact force (33% reduction) than the control group (16% reduction). Furthermore, there was partial bilateral transfer effect and 1-week retention observed in the training group. The observations provide preliminary evidence that teaching tuck-and-roll strategy to older adults has potential effect. The observations provide preliminary evidence that older adults might reduce impact severity utilizing tuck-and-roll strategy during unpredictably-timed sideway falls.

Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Falls; Impact; Injury; Movement; Training