Fall Prevention Research
Dr. Marie Earl

Research in fall prevention can lead to seniors leading more independent, healthier lives.

Older people are known to have devastating falls; ones which often lead to fractured hips and long stays in hospital. But what are the reasons for these falls, and how can they be avoided so that senior citizens can lead more independent lives? Specifically, research in this area examines sensory-motor integration and progressive exercise and their influence over balance control and function.

A recent study compared young healthy adults with older adults with balance problems due to disuse, musculoskeletal injuries and conditions, and impaired proprioception, vision and vestibular systems.

Four areas were evaluated:

• Motor systems – looking for impairments in strength, joint motion and coordination within and between muscles.
• Sensory systems – looking for impairments in proprioception, vision and vestibular function as well as sensori-motor integration through an equitest system and a sensory organization test.
• Progressive Exercise – measuring muscle strength through high intensity resistance, and balance training through sensory integration and postural stability.
• Balance and Function – during lifting tasks with EMG analysis of muscle recruitmen patterns, joint kinetics and kinematics and whole body kinetics and kinematics; as well as during gait tasks through a centre of pressure analysis to study anticipatory control strategies during gait initiation and step descent.

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