The effects of blurred vision on the mechanics of landing during stepping down by the elderly

Prevention of falls during stairway descent in older adults

“…As previous studies (Simoneau et al, 1991;Buckley et al, 2005;Wright and Roys, 2008) point out, a risk of stairway falls can be caused by factors of stair design, stairway environment, and cognitive and physical capabilities. In particular, when these factors cannot complement each other, the risk would be expected to increase.…”

“…In Sweden, 76 percent of falls in stairway occur on the way down (Svänstö rm, 1974). Some possible causes of stairway falls include the lack of capability of perceiving the last step coming due to insufficient lighting (Simoneau et al, 1992;Patla et al, 1993), increased velocity during the descent (Buckley et al, 2005), declined ability of performing multitasks concurrently (Chen et al,1996), and changes of gait just before the landing which is regarded as a transition phase (Templer et al, 1978).…”

“…From the perspective of visual perception capability, blurred vision was found to be one of the critical factors for stairway falls in a dark and unfamiliar environment (Buckley et al, 2005). Hamel et al (2005) found that people with blurred vision had difficulty distinguishing the edge of the stairway regardless of the level of luminance.…”

“…People tend to be more rushed during stairway descent than during stairway ascent (Carson et al, 1978). The chance of falls is more correlated with a hurry factor than any other factors (Buckley et al, 2005), and it is most likely to happen at the first or last three steps (Templer, 1992). The velocity during stairway descent is related to the foot clearance (Livingston et al, 1991).…”

The role of tread fixations in the visual control of stair walking

“…Previous studies on stair walking have made clear that both foot placement and balance control depend on vision, and that stair walking under suboptimal visual conditions results in altered balance control [1,2] and changes in foot placement strategies [3][4][5][6][7]. To understand how vision contributes to stair walking, it is important to know which elements in the environment provide the essential visual cues, and how this information is transformed into adequate gait behavior.…”