Overground walking slip perturbations induce frontal plane motion of the trunk indicating that slips are not just a backwards but also a sideways loss of balance

Abstract

Slip and fall incidents are a serious health care concern globally. Previous research describes a backwards loss of balance during a slip incident, however hip fractures only occur if individuals fall on their side. Therefore, this study is investigating and quantifying the trunk motion in the sagittal and frontal plane. 13 healthy young participants trunk kinematics were analyzed during a slip incident. Peak trunk angle of the trunk in the sagittal and frontal plane were calculated. There was no significant difference between sagittal and frontal plane peak trunk angles suggesting that there is frontal plane motion during an overground slip incident. Our findings suggest research should investigate frontal plane mechanics during a slip incident as there is trunk frontal plane motion which if uncontrolled can result in falling on the femoral neck. Understanding and preventing falls based upon frontal plane mechanics may be more useful for preventing hip fractures from a slip incident. Lastly, the findings of this study are confirmatory results as the frontal plane trunk motion was quantified and reported in 2008.