Highlights
- •Service members with lower limb trauma are high functioning but still fall.
- •Typical fall-risk indicators are not associated with falls in this population.
- •Research needs to identify relevant fall-risk indicators for injured Service members.
Abstract
Background
Persons with lower limb trauma are at high risk for falls. Although there is a wide
range of measures used to assess stability and fall-risk that include performance
measures, temporal-spatial gait parameters, and nonlinear dynamic stability calculations,
these measures are typically derived from fall-prone populations, such as older adults.
Thus, it is unclear if these commonly used fall-risk indicators are effective at evaluating
fall-risk in a younger, higher-functioning population of Service members with lower
limb trauma.
Methods
Twenty-one Service members with lower limb trauma completed a battery of fall-risk
assessments that included performance measures (e.g., four-square-step-test), and
gait parameters (e.g., step width, step length, step time) and dynamic stability measures
(e.g., local divergence exponents) during 10 min of treadmill walking. Participants
also reported the number of stumbles and falls over the previous 4 weeks. Negative
Binomial and Quasibinomial Regressions were used to evaluate the strength of associations
between fall-risk indicators and self-reported falls.
Finding
Participants reported on average stumbling 6(4) times and falling 2(3) times in the
previous 4 weeks. At least one fall was reported by 62% of the participants. None
of the fall-risk indicators were significantly associated with fall prevalence in
this population of Service members with lower limb trauma (p > 0.1).
Interpretation
Despite the high number of reported falls in this young active population, none of
the fall-risk indicators investigated effectively captured and quantified the fall-risk.
Further research is needed to identify appropriate fall-risk assessments for young,
high-functioning individuals with lower limb trauma.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 30, 2022
Accepted:
September 27,
2022
Received:
November 23,
2021
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
