Identification of floor friction safety level for public buildings considering mobility disabled people needs

Effects of Flooring and Hemi Body on Ground Reaction Forces and Coefficient of Friction in Stroke Gait

“…Burnfield et al [3] conducted a study to examine the difference in RCOF among young, healthy elderly, and elderly subjects with diabetes mellitus, lower extremity arthritis and unilateral stroke. No significant differences were found between any of these groups, in agreement with Durá et al [4]. The lack of significant differences in RCOF among subject groups suggested that individuals with the selected medical conditions were at no greater risk of slipping when walking at a self-selected step than were healthy older or younger adults.…”

“…The new pattern that emerges in such a situation can be affected by many factors, for instance, the gender [1] and/or some pathological condition [2][3][4][5][6]. However, with few exceptions [7], most of the stroke gait studies have focused on measuring the walk in rehabilitation environments which may be less complex than the environment typically encountered in the home setting.…”

“…Previous studies have shown that peak RCOF varies with age [1], gender [1], limb dominancy [11,12] and the presence of a disability [2][3][4][5][6]. Those with a disability would appear to be at potentially greater risk owing to the largest changes in gait characteristics and GRFs.…”

“…Durá et al [4] also examined a diverse sample including amputees, Parkinson's disease, and stroke individuals. Their results suggested that the RCOF for all subjects other than amputees was similar to that for normal walkers, while that for the amputees was substantially higher (approximately 0.25 versus 0.39).…”

“…Moreover, these studies [2][3][4] did not systematically examine a unique medical condition (i.e., stroke); different medical conditions analyzed at the same time can have higher data variability and enshroud some results.…”