Plantar pressure and falling risk in older individuals: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Falls are commonplace among elderly people. It is urgent to prevent falls. Previous studies have confirmed that there is a difference in plantar pressure between falls and non-falls in elderly people, but the relationship between fall risk and foot pressure has not been studied. In this study, the differences in dynamic plantar pressure between elderly people with high and low fall risk were preliminarily discussed, and the characteristic parameters of plantar pressure were determined. METHODS: Twenty four high-fall-risk elderly individuals (HR) and 24 low-fall-risk elderly individuals (LR) were selected using the Berg Balance Scale 40 score. They wore wearable foot pressure devices to walk along a 20-m-long corridor. The peak pressure (PP), pressure time integral (PTI), pressure gradient (maximum pressure gradient (MaxPG), minimum pressure gradient (MinPG), full width at half maximum (FWHM)) and average pressure (AP) of their feet were measured for inter-group and intra-group analysis. RESULTS: The foot pressure difference comparing the high fall risk with low fall risk groups was manifested in PP and MaxPG, concentrated in the midfoot and heel (p < 0.05), while the only time parameter, FWHM, was manifested in the whole foot (p < 0.05). The differences between the left and right foot were reflected in all parameters. The differences between the left and right foot in LR were mainly reflected in the heel (p < 0.05), while it in the HR was mainly reflected in the forefoot (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The differences comparing the high fall risk with low fall risk groups were mostly reflected in the midfoot and heel. The HR may have been more cautious when landing. In the intra-group comparison, the difference between the right and left foot of the LR was mainly reflected during heel striking, while it was mainly reflected during pedalling in the HR. The sensitivity of PP, PTI and AP was lower and the newly introduced pressure gradient could better reflect the difference in foot pressure between the two groups. The pressure gradient can be used as a new foot pressure parameter in scientific research.