Abstract
Slip is one of the leading causes of accidental falls. Load-carrying and fatigue might increase risk of slip-induced falls during locomotion. The objective of this study was to determine the main and interactive effects of load carriage and fatigue on gait characteristics at heel contact. An experiment was carried out with five participants walking on a medical treadmill. Different back-carrying loads were applied before and right after the fatiguing exercise. The heel velocity and heel deceleration right before heel contact and the heel contact angles were examined. The results showed that the both heel contact velocity and deceleration increased with fatigue and with the application of the heavy load. These findings suggest that both fatigue and back-carrying load increase the risk of slip-induced falls by compromising gait stability at heel contact. Findings from this study can aid in developing interventions that are able to minimize fall risks especially with the application of fatigue and/or external load.
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Hu, X., Qu, X. (2016). The Effect of Back-Carrying Load and Fatigue on Gait Characteristics at Heel Contact. In: Goonetilleke, R., Karwowski, W. (eds) Advances in Physical Ergonomics and Human Factors. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 489. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41694-6_52
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41694-6_52
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