Older Fallers’ Comprehensive Neuromuscular and Kinematic Alterations in Reactive Balance Control: Indicators of Balance Decline or Compensation? A Pilot Study
<b>Background</b>: Falls and fall consequences in older adults are global health issues. Previous studies have compared postural sways or stepping strategies between older adults with and without fall histories to identify factors associated with falls. However, more in-depth neuromuscul...
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2025-01-01
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| author | Ringo Tang-Long Zhu Timmi Tim Mei Hung Freddy Man Hin Lam Jun-Zhe Li Yu-Yan Luo Jingting Sun Shujun Wang Christina Zong-Hao Ma |
| author_facet | Ringo Tang-Long Zhu Timmi Tim Mei Hung Freddy Man Hin Lam Jun-Zhe Li Yu-Yan Luo Jingting Sun Shujun Wang Christina Zong-Hao Ma |
| author_sort | Ringo Tang-Long Zhu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <b>Background</b>: Falls and fall consequences in older adults are global health issues. Previous studies have compared postural sways or stepping strategies between older adults with and without fall histories to identify factors associated with falls. However, more in-depth neuromuscular/kinematic mechanisms have remained unclear. This study aimed to comprehensively investigate muscle activities and joint kinematics during reactive balance control in older adults with different fall histories. <b>Methods</b>: This pilot observational study recruited six community-dwelling older fallers (≥1 fall in past one year) and six older non-fallers, who received unpredictable translational balance perturbations in randomized directions and intensities during standing. The whole-body center-of-mass (COM) displacements, eight dominant-leg joint motions and muscle electrical activities were collected, and analyzed using the temporal and amplitude parameters. <b>Results</b>: Compared to non-fallers, fallers had significantly: (a) smaller activation rate of the ankle dorsiflexor, delayed activation of the hip flexor/extensor, larger activation rate of the knee flexor, and smaller agonist-antagonist co-contraction in lower-limb muscles; (b) larger knee/hip flexion angles, longer ankle dorsiflexion duration, and delayed timing of recovery in joint motions; and (c) earlier downward COM displacements and larger anteroposterior overshooting COM displacements following unpredictable perturbations (<i>p</i> < 0.05). <b>Conclusions</b>: Compared to non-fallers, fallers used more suspensory strategies for reactive standing balance, which compensated for inadequate ankle/hip strategies but resulted in prolonged recovery. A further longitudinal study with a larger sample is still needed to examine the diagnostic accuracies and training values of these identified neuromuscular/kinematic factors in differentiating fall risks and preventing future falls of older people, respectively. |
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| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2306-5354 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
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| series | Bioengineering |
| spelling | doaj-art-03ec5d0cae174717b678aaaa425671ea2025-01-24T13:23:08ZengMDPI AGBioengineering2306-53542025-01-011216610.3390/bioengineering12010066Older Fallers’ Comprehensive Neuromuscular and Kinematic Alterations in Reactive Balance Control: Indicators of Balance Decline or Compensation? A Pilot StudyRingo Tang-Long Zhu0Timmi Tim Mei Hung1Freddy Man Hin Lam2Jun-Zhe Li3Yu-Yan Luo4Jingting Sun5Shujun Wang6Christina Zong-Hao Ma7Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR 999077, ChinaDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR 999077, ChinaDepartment of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR 999077, ChinaDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR 999077, ChinaDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR 999077, ChinaFuture Architecture and Urban Research Institute, Tongji Architectural Design (Group) Co., Ltd., Shanghai 200092, ChinaDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR 999077, ChinaDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR 999077, China<b>Background</b>: Falls and fall consequences in older adults are global health issues. Previous studies have compared postural sways or stepping strategies between older adults with and without fall histories to identify factors associated with falls. However, more in-depth neuromuscular/kinematic mechanisms have remained unclear. This study aimed to comprehensively investigate muscle activities and joint kinematics during reactive balance control in older adults with different fall histories. <b>Methods</b>: This pilot observational study recruited six community-dwelling older fallers (≥1 fall in past one year) and six older non-fallers, who received unpredictable translational balance perturbations in randomized directions and intensities during standing. The whole-body center-of-mass (COM) displacements, eight dominant-leg joint motions and muscle electrical activities were collected, and analyzed using the temporal and amplitude parameters. <b>Results</b>: Compared to non-fallers, fallers had significantly: (a) smaller activation rate of the ankle dorsiflexor, delayed activation of the hip flexor/extensor, larger activation rate of the knee flexor, and smaller agonist-antagonist co-contraction in lower-limb muscles; (b) larger knee/hip flexion angles, longer ankle dorsiflexion duration, and delayed timing of recovery in joint motions; and (c) earlier downward COM displacements and larger anteroposterior overshooting COM displacements following unpredictable perturbations (<i>p</i> < 0.05). <b>Conclusions</b>: Compared to non-fallers, fallers used more suspensory strategies for reactive standing balance, which compensated for inadequate ankle/hip strategies but resulted in prolonged recovery. A further longitudinal study with a larger sample is still needed to examine the diagnostic accuracies and training values of these identified neuromuscular/kinematic factors in differentiating fall risks and preventing future falls of older people, respectively.https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5354/12/1/66community-dwellingolder adultsfallsreactive balanceperturbationelectromyographic (EMG) |
| spellingShingle | Ringo Tang-Long Zhu Timmi Tim Mei Hung Freddy Man Hin Lam Jun-Zhe Li Yu-Yan Luo Jingting Sun Shujun Wang Christina Zong-Hao Ma Older Fallers’ Comprehensive Neuromuscular and Kinematic Alterations in Reactive Balance Control: Indicators of Balance Decline or Compensation? A Pilot Study Bioengineering community-dwelling older adults falls reactive balance perturbation electromyographic (EMG) |
| title | Older Fallers’ Comprehensive Neuromuscular and Kinematic Alterations in Reactive Balance Control: Indicators of Balance Decline or Compensation? A Pilot Study |
| title_full | Older Fallers’ Comprehensive Neuromuscular and Kinematic Alterations in Reactive Balance Control: Indicators of Balance Decline or Compensation? A Pilot Study |
| title_fullStr | Older Fallers’ Comprehensive Neuromuscular and Kinematic Alterations in Reactive Balance Control: Indicators of Balance Decline or Compensation? A Pilot Study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Older Fallers’ Comprehensive Neuromuscular and Kinematic Alterations in Reactive Balance Control: Indicators of Balance Decline or Compensation? A Pilot Study |
| title_short | Older Fallers’ Comprehensive Neuromuscular and Kinematic Alterations in Reactive Balance Control: Indicators of Balance Decline or Compensation? A Pilot Study |
| title_sort | older fallers comprehensive neuromuscular and kinematic alterations in reactive balance control indicators of balance decline or compensation a pilot study |
| topic | community-dwelling older adults falls reactive balance perturbation electromyographic (EMG) |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5354/12/1/66 |
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