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© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Slip-induced falls, responsible for approximately 40% of falls, can lead to severe injuries and in extreme cases, death. A large foot–floor contact angle (FFCA) during the heel-strike event has been associated with an increased risk of slip-induced falls. The goals of this feasibility study were to design and assess a method for detecting FFCA and providing cues to the user to generate a compensatory FFCA response during a future heel-strike event. The long-term goal of this research is to train gait in order to minimize the likelihood of a slip event due to a large FFCA. An inertial measurement unit (IMU) was used to estimate FFCA, and a speaker provided auditory semi-real-time feedback when the FFCA was outside of a 10–20 degree target range following a heel-strike event. In addition to training with the FFCA feedback during a 10-min treadmill training period, the healthy young participants completed pre- and post-training overground walking trials. Results showed that training with FFCA feedback increased FFCA events within the target range by 16% for “high-risk” walkers (i.e., participants that walked with more than 75% of their FFCAs outside the target range) both during feedback treadmill trials and post-training overground trials without feedback, supporting the feasibility of training FFCA using a semi-real-time FFCA feedback system.

Details

Title
Reducing Slip Risk: A Feasibility Study of Gait Training with Semi-Real-Time Feedback of Foot–Floor Contact Angle
Author
Zong-Hao, Christina, Ma 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Tian Bao 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; DiCesare, Christopher A 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Harris, Isaac 2 ; Chambers, April 3 ; Shull, Peter B 4 ; Yong-Ping, Zheng 5   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Cham, Rakie 6 ; Sienko, Kathleen H 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; [email protected] (C.Z.-H.M.); [email protected] (T.B.); [email protected] (C.A.D.); [email protected] (I.H.); Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 999077, China; [email protected] 
 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; [email protected] (C.Z.-H.M.); [email protected] (T.B.); [email protected] (C.A.D.); [email protected] (I.H.) 
 Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA; [email protected] (A.C.); [email protected] (R.C.); Department of Health and Human Development, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA 
 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China 
 Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 999077, China; [email protected] 
 Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA; [email protected] (A.C.); [email protected] (R.C.) 
First page
3641
Publication year
2022
Publication date
2022
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
14248220
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2670406390
Copyright
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.