Effects of Tripping Conditions and Repetitions on Reactive Balance Control During Walking and Carrying Tasks

Details

• Journal Article:
  Ergonomics
• Personal Author:
  Li, Ling ; Van Valkenburg, Kaden ; Geske, Ben ; Borrman, Carly ; Dai, Boyi
• Description:
  Falls caused by tripping during walking and load-carrying tasks remain a major source of occupational injury. This study examined the effects of tripping condition, task, and repetition on reactive balance responses. Twenty adults performed walking and carrying tasks under obstacle and cord tripping conditions across six repeated trials. Obstacle tripping produced longer recovery step times and greater recovery step lengths than cord tripping, indicating greater balance recovery demands. Carrying a 6.8-kg anterior load did not greatly impair reactive balance, although it modified repetition-related changes in recovery step length. Repeated exposure was associated with reduced recovery step length during carrying obstacle tripping and reduced trunk flexion during obstacle tripping under both walking and carrying conditions. Perceived recovery difficulty was greater during obstacle tripping, whereas perceived worry decreased across repetitions during walking. These findings indicate that reactive balance responses were mostly affected by perturbation types, while load carriage may influence repetition-related recovery stepping. PRACTITIONER SUMMARY: Obstacle-like trips created greater balance recovery demands than cord-like trips, leading to longer step times, larger recovery steps and higher perceived recovery difficulty. While carrying a moderate anterior load did not substantially impair initial balance recovery in young adults, it significantly influenced how recovery stepping adapted with repetition. Therefore, occupational fall-prevention simulation and training may utilise mechanically challenging, obstacle-like perturbations that accurately reflect task-specific workplace hazards. Description provided by NIOSH
• Subjects:
  • Accidents, Occupational
  • Ergonomics
  • Occupational Health
  • Occupational Injuries
  • Safety
• Keywords:
  • Ergonomics; Slips, trips, and falls; STF; Injuries; Injury prevention; Manual materials handling; Fatalities;
  • Author Keywords: Tripping perturbation; load carriage; balance recovery; fall prevention
• Source:
  Ergonomics 2026 May; :Epub ahead of print
• ISSN:
  0014-0139
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Boston Region OSHA ; Denver Region OSHA ; Idaho ; San Francisco Region OSHA ; Utah ; Vermont ; Wyoming
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  12 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20071708
• Contact Point Address:
  Boyi Dai, Department of Rehabilitation and Movement Science, 106 Carrigan Drive, Burlington, VT 05405, USA
• Email:
  boyi.dai@med.uvm.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2026
• Performing Organization:
  University of Utah
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• End Date:
  20280630
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/259479/cdc_259479_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.43 MB]
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:15778d0157b4c64beb42c627af850b4bd4888a722011492a4b448df57a3dcc65018035fe849615a94ca12741264255d92c7be52395a06efb3d6717d87feede7d