Slips, trips, and falls are a leading cause of injury to firefighters with many injuries occurring while traversing stairs, possibly exaggerated by acute fatigue from firefighting activities and/or asymmetric load carriage. This study examined the effects that fatigue, induced by simulated firefighting activities, and hose load carriage have on foot clearance while traversing stairs. Landing an...

BACKGROUND Stair climbing is a challenging task to the elderly being the task with the first complaint in patients with mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis. Stair climbing results in around six times more compressive load transmitted through the knee joint than walking on level ground. The purpose of this study was to assess whether lateral wedge insoles would reduce medial compartment knee lo...

This study aimed to compare gait properties during level walking and during stair ascent and descent with varying loads. Fifteen healthy young men (mean age: 22.1 ± 1.6 years) walked while holding four different loads relative to each subject’s body mass (0, 20, 40 and 60% of body mass: BM) on their backs. Stance time, swing time, and double support times were selected as gait parameters. All p...

Wedge orthotics are commonly prescribed for patients with hyperpronation and/or low back pain to improve lower limb alignment and to reduce pain. The purpose of this study was to examine the kinetic effects of medial and lateral wedge orthotics during walking and stair negotiation. Twenty-two healthy young adults participated in the study. Each participant wore no wedge (W0) as a baseline and l...

The generation of whole-body angular momentum is essential in many locomotor tasks and must be regulated in order to maintain dynamic balance. However, angular momentum has not been investigated during stair walking, which is an activity that presents a biomechanical challenge for balance-impaired populations. We investigated three-dimensional whole-body angular momentum during stair ascent and...

We analyzed kinematics of stair ascent and descent in autistic children and adolescents in comparison with age-matched healthy children and adolescents. Eight healthy adolescents, 6 autistic adolescents, 7 healthy children and 6 autistic children participated in the study. We found that autistic subjects of both groups showed significantly more fluctuations of hip joint angular velocity than ag...

Fractures at the femoral neck play an important role in morbidity and mortality among older adults. Understanding the loading environment is a crucial factor for reducing the incidence of fracture at this site. In this study, the stresses on the femoral neck during stair ascent and descent were estimated. These femoral neck stresses were also compared to the peak loading from internal hip momen...