Effects of Obesity and Age on Fall Risk - Implications for Safety Guidelines

肥胖和年龄对跌倒风险的影响 - 对安全指南的影响

• 批准号: 8103647
• 负责人: MICHAEL L MADIGAN
• 金额: $ 27.16万
• 依托单位: VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INST AND ST UNIV
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-09-01 至 2014-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8103647
• 关键词: Effects; Obesity; Age; Fall; Risk

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term goal of this work is to develop fall prevention guidelines that are protective for obese and older workers because current guidelines do not account for the special needs of these subpopulations. Two specific aims are proposed. The first aim will determine the effects of obesity and increased age on risk of slipping, tripping, and losing balance during simulated construction work. Our focus is on slips, trips, and loss of balance because they are among the most commonly reported contributing factors to falls in the workplace. This aim will also focus on realistic situations in construction work (i.e. work that has an inherent high risk for falls) that can lead to a slip, trip, or loss of balance, and that are amenable to safety guidelines to reduce fall risk. The second aim will determine the effects of obesity and increased age on balance and balance recovery after slipping and tripping. The results from both aims will improve our understanding as to why obese and older workers are at an increased risk of falls. The results can also be used by policy makers to develop revised fall-prevention safety guidelines or designs for safety that are protective for obese and older workers. This research is novel in two aspects. First, it is novel in targeting the main and interactive effects of obesity, aging, and work experience on balance in the construction industry. While the main effects of aging on balance have been studied extensively, the effects of obesity, experience, and their interaction with aging have received little attention despite the growing number of obese and obese older construction workers. Second, it includes testing under realistic working conditions so that results can be more-readily translated to safety guidelines and/or designs for safety to reduce the risk of falls in obese workers. This research has the added benefit that, while focused on construction, several of the results are applicable to other occupational sectors. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Falls are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality among workers. Demographic trends in the United States indicate a growing number of obese and older workers, but fall prevention safety guidelines do not account for the specific needs of these individuals. The work proposed here will more fully characterize the effects of obesity and age on balance and risk of falls, and provide data that, along with existing evidence, can be used by policy makers to develop more inclusive safety guidelines that account for the balance abilities of obese and older workers.

描述（由申请人提供）：这项工作的长期目标是制定对肥胖和年长工人保护性的秋季预防准则，因为当前的准则不考虑这些亚种群的特殊需求。提出了两个具体目标。第一个目标将决定肥胖和年龄增加对模拟施工工作期间滑倒，绊倒和失去平衡的风险的影响。我们的重点是滑移，旅行和失去平衡，因为它们是最常见的造成工作场所跌倒的因素之一。这个目标还将集中于建筑工作中的现实情况（即具有固有的高风险跌倒的工作），这些情况可能会导致滑倒，旅行或平衡损失，并且适合安全指南，以降低跌倒风险。第二个目标将决定肥胖和年龄增加对滑倒和绊倒后平衡恢复的影响。两个目标的结果将提高我们对肥胖和年长工人为何跌倒风险增加的理解。决策者还可以使用该结果来制定对肥胖和年长工人保护性的安全性秋季安全指南或设计的设计。这项研究在两个方面都是新颖的。首先，它是针对肥胖，衰老和工作经验在建筑行业平衡的主要和互动效果的新颖新颖的。尽管已经对衰老对平衡的主要影响进行了广泛的研究，但尽管肥胖和肥胖的老年建筑工人数量越来越多，肥胖，经验以及与衰老的互动的影响很少。其次，它包括在现实的工作条件下进行测试，以便可以将结果更加可读地转化为安全指南和/或设计，以降低肥胖工人跌倒的风险。这项研究的额外好处是，尽管专注于建筑，但其中一些结果适用于其他职业部门。 公共卫生相关性：跌倒是工人发病率和死亡率的重要原因。美国的人口趋势表明肥胖和年长的工人越来越多，但是跌倒的预防安全指南并不能满足这些人的特定需求。这里提出的工作将更充分地表征肥胖和年龄对跌倒的平衡和风险的影响，并提供数据，这些数据可以由政策制定者使用，以制定更具包容性的安全指南，以说明肥胖和老年工人的平衡能力。