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

描述（由申请人提供）：这项工作的长期目标是制定对肥胖和老年工人有保护作用的跌倒预防指南，因为目前的指南没有考虑到这些亚群的特殊需求。提出了两个具体目标。第一个目标是确定肥胖和年龄增加对模拟建筑工作中滑倒、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，因为它们是工作场所最常见的福尔斯摔倒的原因。这一目标还将侧重于施工作业中可能导致滑倒、绊倒或失去平衡的实际情况（即，具有固有高福尔斯风险的作业），并符合安全指南以降低坠落风险。第二个目标将确定肥胖和年龄增加对平衡和滑倒和绊倒后平衡恢复的影响。这两个目标的结果将提高我们对肥胖和老年工人福尔斯风险增加的理解。研究结果也可以被政策制定者用来制定修订后的预防跌倒安全指南或设计安全措施，以保护肥胖和老年工人。本研究在两个方面具有创新性。首先，它是新颖的针对肥胖，老龄化和工作经验的主要和互动的影响，在建筑行业的平衡。虽然衰老对平衡的主要影响已经得到了广泛的研究，肥胖的影响，经验，以及它们与衰老的相互作用很少受到关注，尽管越来越多的肥胖和肥胖的老年建筑工人。第二，它包括在实际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，以减少肥胖工人的福尔斯跌倒风险。这项研究的额外好处是，虽然重点是建筑业，但其中一些结果也适用于其他职业领域。 公共卫生相关性：福尔斯是工人发病和死亡的重要原因。美国的人口趋势表明，肥胖和老年工人的数量越来越多，但跌倒预防安全指南并没有考虑到这些人的具体需求。本文提出的工作将更全面地描述肥胖和年龄对平衡和福尔斯风险的影响，并提供数据，沿着现有证据，可供政策制定者制定更具包容性的安全指南，说明肥胖和老年工人的平衡能力。

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.