Aging And Fall Risk On Peak Landing Force While Clearing An Obstacle In Immersive Technologies

A cause of falls in the older adult population (≥65) is tripping over obstacles. Greater vertical ground reaction force (vGRF) has been associated with higher obstacles and greater trailing foot clearance. Obstacle clearance training performed in Virtual Reality (VR) significantly improved the ability of participants to clear obstacles in physical reality (PR). In the mixed reality (MR), holograms are imposed on the physical environment. PURPOSE: To investigate age and fall-risk level based differences in peak vGRF after clearing a 6” obstacle in physical, mixed, and virtual reality environments. METHODS: 12 young adults (23+/- 3 years), 12 low fall risk older adults (76+/-8 years and STEADI score < 4), and 7 high fall risk older adults (73+/-4 years and STEADI score ≥ 4) participated. While wearing insole force sensors, participants cleared a 6” obstacle. Peak landing forces of leading and trailing limbs steps while crossing the obstacle were recorded. A repeated measures 2-way ANOVA was performed comparing groups and environments. RESULTS: See Table below. For the leading limb, there was a significantly lower difference in the high fall risk older adult group’s mean peak vGRF generated compared to that of younger adult group in MR (p = 0.05). For the trailing limb, there was a significantly lower difference in high fall risk older adult group’s mean peak vGRF in all environments (p = 0.009) and low fall risk older adult group in VR (p = 0.05) and PR (p = 0.001) compared to younger adult group. There were no significant group x environment interactions. CONCLUSION: While crossing an obstacle, older adults had significantly lower vGRF in leading and trailing limbs and this behavior was similar in all environments. Based on the results of the current study, biofeedback to increase vGRF values when clearing obstacles in all environments could be used for rehabilitation purposes among older adults at high fall risk. - Peak Force Leading Limb (NBW) Peak Force Trailing Limb (NBW) Young Adults Low Fall Risk Older Adults High Fall Risk Older Adults Young Adults Low Fall Risk Older Adults High Fall Risk Older Adults Mixed reality 1.35 (0.15) 1.27 (0.14) 1.18 (0.13) 1.19 (0.10) 1.09 (0.12) 1.05 (0.15) Physical reality 1.29 (0.13) 1.20 (0.12) 1.18 (0.18) 1.19 (0.11) 1.06 (0.11) 1.02 (0.12) Virtual reality 1.33 (0.13) 1.19 (0.08) 1.15 (0.13) 1.19 (0.10) 1.03 (0.07) 1.03 (0.12) Elon Faculty Research and Development Grant