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保护肥胖和老年工人的跌倒预防指南，因为当前的指南没有考虑到这些亚人群的特殊需求。提出了两个具体目标。第一个目标是确定肥胖和年龄增长对模拟施工过程中滑倒、绊倒和失去平衡风险的影响。我们的重点是滑倒、绊倒和失去平衡，因为它们是最常见的导致工作场所跌倒的因素之一。该目标还将重点关注建筑工作中可能导致滑倒、绊倒或失去平衡的实际情况（即具有固有高跌倒风险的工作），并且符合安全准则以降低跌倒风险。第二个目标将确定肥胖和年龄增长对滑倒和绊倒后平衡和平衡恢复的影响。这两个目标的结果将加深我们对肥胖和老年工人跌倒风险增加的理解。政策制定者还可以利用这些结果来制定修订后的防跌倒安全指南或保护肥胖和老年工人的安全设计。这项研究在两个方面是新颖的。首先，它在针对建筑行业中肥胖、老龄化和工作经验平衡的主要和交互影响方面具有新颖性。虽然衰老对平衡的主要影响已被广泛研究，但肥胖、经验及其与衰老的相互作用的影响却很少受到关注，尽管肥胖和肥胖老年建筑工人的数量不断增加。其次，它包括在现实工作条件下进行测试，以便结果可以更容易地转化为安全指南和/或安全设计，以降低肥胖工人跌倒的风险。这项研究的另一个好处是，虽然重点关注建筑业，但其中一些结果也适用于其他职业部门。 公共卫生相关性：跌倒是工人发病和死亡的一个重要原因。美国的人口趋势表明，肥胖和老年工人的数量不断增加，但预防跌倒安全指南并未考虑到这些人的具体需求。这里提出的工作将更全面地描述肥胖和年龄对平衡和跌倒风险的影响，并提供数据，与现有证据一起，政策制定者可以利用这些数据来制定更具包容性的安全指南，以考虑儿童的平衡能力。肥胖和老年工人。