Injury Biomechanics and Aging Laboratory, Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
Med Eng Phys. 2013 Jan;35(1):108-15. doi: 10.1016/j.medengphy.2012.04.006. Epub 2012 May 29.
'Safety floors' aim to decrease the risk of fall-related injuries by absorbing impact energy during falls. Ironically, excessive floor deflection during walking or standing may increase fall risk. In this study we used a materials testing system to characterize the ability of a range of floors to absorb energy during simulated head and hip impacts while resisting deflection during simulated single-leg stance. We found that energy absorption for all safety floors (mean (SD)=14.8 (4.9)J) and bedside mats (25.1 (9.3)J) was 3.2- to 5.4-fold greater than the control condition (commercial carpet). While footfall deflections were not significantly different between safety floors (1.8 (0.7)mm) and the control carpet (3.7 (0.6)mm), they were significantly higher for two bedside mats. Finally, all of the safety floors, and two bedside mats, displayed 3-10 times the energy-absorption-to-deflection ratios observed for the baseline carpet. Overall, these results suggest that the safety floors we tested effectively addressed two competing demands required to reduce fall-related injury risk; namely the ability to absorb substantial impact energy without increasing footfall deflections. This study contributes to the literature suggesting that safety floors are a promising intervention for reducing fall-related injury risk in older adults.
“安全地板”旨在通过在跌倒时吸收冲击能来降低跌倒相关伤害的风险。具有讽刺意味的是，在行走或站立时地板过度变形可能会增加跌倒的风险。在这项研究中，我们使用材料测试系统来评估一系列地板在模拟头部和臀部撞击时吸收能量的能力，同时在模拟单腿站立时抵抗变形。我们发现，所有安全地板（平均（SD）= 14.8（4.9）J）和床边垫（25.1（9.3）J）的能量吸收能力比对照条件（商业地毯）高 3.2 至 5.4 倍。虽然安全地板（1.8（0.7）mm）和对照地毯（3.7（0.6）mm）之间的脚步挠度没有显著差异，但两个床边垫的挠度明显更高。最后，所有安全地板和两个床边垫的能量吸收与挠度之比是基线地毯的 3 至 10 倍。总的来说，这些结果表明，我们测试的安全地板有效地满足了降低跌倒相关伤害风险所需的两个相互竞争的要求；即吸收大量冲击能而不增加脚步挠度的能力。本研究为安全地板是降低老年人跌倒相关伤害风险的一种有前途的干预措施的文献提供了依据。
