Declaration I declare that the work described in this dissertation is, except where otherwise stated, entirely my own work and has not been submitted as an exercise for a degree at this or any other university.

BACKGROUND The authors assumed that advanced lumbar disk disease contributes to disorders of body balance and asymmetry of foot pressure force on the ground. Surgery improves biomechanical relations in the lumbar spine, thus decreasing the disturbance of postural balance and foot load. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study was carried out among 40 patients treated in Military Clinical Hospital in Wr...

For many industrial tasks (push, pull, lift, carry, etc.), restrictions on grip locations and visibility constrain the hand and head positions and help to define feasible postures. In contrast, foot locations are often minimally constrained and an ergonomics analyst can choose several different stances in selecting a posture to analyze. Also, because stance can be a critical determinant of a bi...

BACKGROUND Concern about a child's flat foot posture is a common reason for frequent clinical consultations for an array of health care and medical professionals. The recently developed paediatric flatfoot clinical-care pathway (FFP) has provided an evidence based approach to diagnosis and management. The intra and inter-rater/measurer reliability of the FFP has been investigated in this study....

The rear-facing Infant Car Seat (ICS) is designed to meet federal requirements for transporting children less than 1 year old. Typical use includes transfer in and out of a vehicle, which is shown to be a difficult lift. Despite the frequency of this lift, manufacturers provide little guidance for users. Review of relevant literature suggested an ICS featuring an angled handle, promoting a neut...

INTRODUCTION Subjects with sensorial losses present balance deficits. Although such condition is often observed among elderly, there is discussion concerning the dependence on sensorial information for body sway control in the elderly without sensorial losses. PURPOSE We investigated the effects of foot sensitivity manipulation on postural control during upright standing in young adults and i...

BACKGROUND The effect of healthy ageing and of parkinsonism on breadth of base whilst walking had not been adequately documented. DESIGN Height-specific reference ranges for mean foot separation at mid-swing were derived for males and females, age not proving to be a significant influence. METHOD Normative data were obtained from 164 healthy volunteers, and foot separation in idiopathic par...

CONTEXT Wearing inappropriate shoes can cause biomechanical imbalance, foot problems, and pain and induce falls. OBJECTIVE To verify the prevalence of wearing incorrectly sized shoes and the relationship between incorrectly sized shoes and foot dimensions, pain, and diabetes among older adults. DESIGN A cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS 399 older adults (227 women and 172 men) age 60 to...

background motor skills disorder in children with motor dys-function is a common disorder in childhood. the aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and severity of musculoskeletal disorders in children with developmental coordination disorder in comparison with healthy children. material and methods using developmental disorder coordina-tion questionnaire (dcdq'07), 59 male children...

CONTEXT Foot-orthosis (FO) intervention to prevent and treat numerous lower extremity injuries is widely accepted clinically. However, the results of quantitative gait analyses have been equivocal. The foot models used, participants receiving intervention, and orthoses used might contribute to the variability. OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of a custom-molded FO intervention on multiseg...