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

这项工作的长期目标是制定预防跌倒的指导方针， 肥胖和老年工人，因为目前的指导方针不考虑的特殊需要， 这些亚群。提出了两个具体目标。第一个目标将决定效果 肥胖和年龄增加对滑倒、绊倒和失去平衡的风险的影响 建筑工程。我们的重点是滑倒，旅行，失去平衡，因为他们是其中的 最常报告的工作场所福尔斯跌倒的促成因素。这一目标还将侧重于 在建筑工程的实际情况下（即具有固有的高福尔斯风险的工作）， 可能导致滑倒、绊倒或失去平衡，并且符合安全指南， 坠落风险第二个目标将确定肥胖和年龄增长对平衡的影响， 打滑和跳闸后平衡恢复。这两个目标的结果将改善我们的 了解为什么肥胖和老年工人的福尔斯风险增加。结果 也可供决策者用于制定修订的防坠落安全指南， 安全设计，保护肥胖和老年工人。这项研究在两个方面是新颖的 方面首先，它在针对肥胖、衰老和工作的主要和交互影响方面是新颖的 在建筑行业的平衡经验。虽然衰老对平衡的主要影响 已经被广泛研究，肥胖的影响，经验，以及它们与 尽管肥胖和肥胖老年人的数量不断增加， 建筑工人第二，它包括在实际工作条件下进行测试， 结果可以更容易地转化为安全指南和/或安全设计， 肥胖工人的福尔斯风险。这项研究有一个额外的好处，即虽然专注于 建筑业，一些结果适用于其他职业部门。

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.