Funding agencies and institutions are creating initiatives to encourage interdisciplinary research that can be more easily translated into community initiatives to enhance health. Therefore, the current research environment calls for interdisciplinary education and skills to create sustained partnerships with community institutions. However, formalized opportunities in both of these areas are limited for students embarking on research careers. The purpose of this paper is to underscore the historical and current importance of providing interdisciplinary training and community dissemination for research students. We also suggest an approach to begin to address the existing gap. Specifically, we suggest embedding a ten-week summer rotation into existing research curricula with the goals of: 1) providing students with a hands-on interdisciplinary research experience, 2) facilitating dialogue between research students and community settings to disseminate science to the public, and 3) sparking collaborations among researchers who seek to create a way to sustain summer program rotations with grant funding.
Background Obesity negatively impacts motor function leading to an increase in fall risk. Massive weight loss improves some aspects of gait on flat ground. However, we have little information about whether gait changes during flat ground walking and during more complex motor tasks beyond flat ground walking. Objectives Our objectives were to examine how massive weight loss after Roux-en-Y bariatric surgery affects gait during flat ground walking and obstacle crossing one year post surgery. Setting United States Methods Nineteen adult females walked under five conditions: initial baseline walking on flat ground, crossing three obstacle heights, and final baseline walking on flat ground for a total of 25 trials. Spatio-temporal gait parameters were collected simultaneously using a gait carpet and body-worn sensors. Results Gait improved post surgery with the strongest effect observed for double limb support time during flat ground walking (p<.001) and obstacle crossing (p<.001). The reduction in body mass index was correlated with improved swing (p<.01) and double limb support time (p<.01) during flat ground walking and improved swing during obstacle crossing on low (p<.01), medium (p<.01), and high (p<.01) obstacles. Improved gait post surgery was more pronounced on high obstacles for velocity (p<.001) and double limb support time (p<.001). Conclusions Massive weight loss results in improved spatio-temporal gait patterns during flat ground walking. Examining how massive weight loss affects spatio-temporal gait may help create ways to encourage a more active lifestyle for adults with obesity.
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