Maintaining Balance

Researchers examine the best and worst ways to carry groceries to limit falls. The worst way: using a backpack.

September 14, 2010 - Elderly individuals heading to the grocery store should go away one factor off their lists: a backpack. It's the worst method to transport groceries, in accordance with College of Dayton research offered final month on the American Society of Biomechanics meeting in Providence, R.I.
Led by Erin Sutton, scholar director of the University of Dayton Engineering Wellness and Safety Lab, and Kim Bigelow, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and college lab director; the eight-person research group studied 20 adults between the ages of sixty five and eighty three for Minimizing Postural Instability When Carrying Load: The Results of Carrying Grocery Baggage on the Elderly.

They used a balance plate similar to Wii Match online game system know-how to measure how much and how briskly people swayed whereas holding grocery bags. Determining which of seven methods for carrying groceries resulted within the smallest sway is important, because excessive sway has been linked to falls, based on Bigelow. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates more than a 3rd of adults sixty five and older fall annually within the United States.

Relatively, the most effective of the seven ways examined to keep one's balance is to carry one bag in each hand, offered the bags weigh the same. The next-best way to hold regular is to slide a bag onto the forearm and maintain it throughout the body.

Holding one bag in a single hand created probably the most imbalance after the backpack.

"The stats weren't overwhelming sufficient to advocate an ordinary," Bigelow said. "But, because of these traits, we are going to test another one hundred fifty individuals this fall."

The College of Dayton Engineering Wellness and Safety Lab combines engineering, medication and bodily therapy to grasp steadiness, gait and mobility.

Sutton is a senior mechanical engineering major from Perrysburg, Ohio. One of the few undergraduates within the nation to current analysis on the American Society of Biomechanics meeting, she said researching this area has helped her see how engineering helps people. The challenge also was her first alternative to steer a group.

"I obtained probably the most out of seeing how engineering helped the individuals, even earlier than the outcomes of the study. We got the participants fascinated about stability," said Sutton, whose work at the College led to an internship at Prosthetic Design Inc. in the Dayton suburb of Clayton. "I beloved working with people. It's positively something I wish to do."

Prosthetics Design Inc. even began a analysis program with Sutton as chief of the primary challenge due to her work within the Wellness and Security Lab, she said.