EPP - Elite Postdoc Program

Does balance recovery ability depends on the measured movement?

Principal Investigator: Dr. Lizeth Sloot

FAB member: Miss Nikita Sharma

Funder: Baden-Württemberg Stiftung (Germany)

Collaborating institutions: Heidelberg University (S Steib)

Our study aims to:

Currently, we don’t know if the balance ability we measure is dependent on the movement we measure. This knowledge could reshape how we assess balance in the clinic
We aim to evlauate how (reactive) balance ability depends on measured movement and relates to clinical balance tests
Outline icon of four people grouped together, representing a team or community.
Silhouette of a person falling into a circular hole, representing a slip or fall.

Our Methods

A state-of-the-art instrument treadmill (BalanceTutor, Heidelberg University) that can perturb people by suddenly and shortly increasing (or decreasing) the belt speed or moving the treadmill sideways
Icon of a treadmill on a black background.
Sequence of five white human figures illustrating the phases of aging, from young to old, with the second figure sitting on a chair and the last figure with an arrow indicating movement or transformation. 
We are the first to perturb people during different daily movements: walking, standing, standing up, sitting down, bending over and turning
A white walking person icon with a cane on a black background. 
We measured a large cohort of young and older people, of different frailty levels. We assessed full-body movement using a body-worn sensor system (IMUs, Xsense)

Impact

Our preliminary results show that a person’s reactive balance depends on the movement that is being assessed
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