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Gait Speed with Anti-Slip Devices on Icy Pedestrian Crossings Relate to Perceived Fall-Risk and Balance

It is important to find criteria for preventive measures and appropriate assistive devices to reduce pedestrian injuries and increase walking in winter. Reducing the rate of falls on icy surfaces and improving people’s ability to safely cross a street in winter conditions by achieving an adequate wa...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Larsson, Agneta, Berggård, Glenn, Rosander, Peter, Gard, Gunvor
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6678553/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31295887
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16142451
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author Larsson, Agneta
Berggård, Glenn
Rosander, Peter
Gard, Gunvor
author_facet Larsson, Agneta
Berggård, Glenn
Rosander, Peter
Gard, Gunvor
author_sort Larsson, Agneta
collection PubMed
description It is important to find criteria for preventive measures and appropriate assistive devices to reduce pedestrian injuries and increase walking in winter. Reducing the rate of falls on icy surfaces and improving people’s ability to safely cross a street in winter conditions by achieving an adequate walking speed, for example, need to be considered. This study explores pedestrian perceptions of fall risk, balance, and footfall transitions while using different designs for anti-slip devices on ice and snow-covered ice and relates these to measures of gait speed and friction. Trials were performed with nine pedestrians testing 19 anti-slip devices on ice and ice covered with snow. Laboratory tests of the dynamic coefficient of friction (DCOF) on plain ice were also performed. The findings suggest that there was conformity in the participants’ perceptions of good balance and low fall risk for one-fifth of the devices (three whole-foot designs and one design with built-in spikes). We also found that gait speed on icy pedestrian crossings is related to perceived fall-risk and balance control, but not to DCOF of the anti-slip devices.
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spelling pubmed-66785532019-08-19 Gait Speed with Anti-Slip Devices on Icy Pedestrian Crossings Relate to Perceived Fall-Risk and Balance Larsson, Agneta Berggård, Glenn Rosander, Peter Gard, Gunvor Int J Environ Res Public Health Article It is important to find criteria for preventive measures and appropriate assistive devices to reduce pedestrian injuries and increase walking in winter. Reducing the rate of falls on icy surfaces and improving people’s ability to safely cross a street in winter conditions by achieving an adequate walking speed, for example, need to be considered. This study explores pedestrian perceptions of fall risk, balance, and footfall transitions while using different designs for anti-slip devices on ice and snow-covered ice and relates these to measures of gait speed and friction. Trials were performed with nine pedestrians testing 19 anti-slip devices on ice and ice covered with snow. Laboratory tests of the dynamic coefficient of friction (DCOF) on plain ice were also performed. The findings suggest that there was conformity in the participants’ perceptions of good balance and low fall risk for one-fifth of the devices (three whole-foot designs and one design with built-in spikes). We also found that gait speed on icy pedestrian crossings is related to perceived fall-risk and balance control, but not to DCOF of the anti-slip devices. MDPI 2019-07-10 2019-07 /pmc/articles/PMC6678553/ /pubmed/31295887 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16142451 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Larsson, Agneta
Berggård, Glenn
Rosander, Peter
Gard, Gunvor
Gait Speed with Anti-Slip Devices on Icy Pedestrian Crossings Relate to Perceived Fall-Risk and Balance
title Gait Speed with Anti-Slip Devices on Icy Pedestrian Crossings Relate to Perceived Fall-Risk and Balance
title_full Gait Speed with Anti-Slip Devices on Icy Pedestrian Crossings Relate to Perceived Fall-Risk and Balance
title_fullStr Gait Speed with Anti-Slip Devices on Icy Pedestrian Crossings Relate to Perceived Fall-Risk and Balance
title_full_unstemmed Gait Speed with Anti-Slip Devices on Icy Pedestrian Crossings Relate to Perceived Fall-Risk and Balance
title_short Gait Speed with Anti-Slip Devices on Icy Pedestrian Crossings Relate to Perceived Fall-Risk and Balance
title_sort gait speed with anti-slip devices on icy pedestrian crossings relate to perceived fall-risk and balance
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6678553/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31295887
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16142451
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