Pelicioni Paulo H S, Chan Lloyd L Y, Shi Shuotong, Wong Kenny, Kark Lauren, Okubo Yoshiro, Brodie Matthew A
School of Health Sciences, University of New South Wales, Kensington Campus, NSW 2052, Australia.
Neuroscience Research Australia, 139 Barker Street Randwick, NSW 2031, Australia.
Heliyon. 2023 Aug 7;9(8):e18366. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e18366. eCollection 2023 Aug.
Mobile phone use is known to be a distraction to pedestrians, increasing their likelihood of crossing into oncoming traffic or colliding with other people. However, the effect of using a mobile phone to text while walking on gait stability and accidental falls in young adults remains inconclusive. This study uses a 70 cm low friction slip hazard and the threat of hazard to investigate the effects of texting while walking on gait stability, the ability to recover balance after a slip hazard and accidental falls.
Fifty healthy young adults performed six walking tasks, and one seated texting task in random order. The walks were conducted over a 10-m walkway. Four progressive hazard levels were used: 1) Seated; 2) Normal Walk (walking across the walkway with no threat of a slip); 3) Threat (walking with the threat of a slip); and 4) Slip (walking with an actual 70 cm slip hazard). The three walking conditions were repeated twice with and without the mobile phone texting dual-task. Gait kinematics and trunk posture were recorded using wearable sensors attached to the head, trunk, pelvis and feet. Study outcomes were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance with significance set to .
Mobile phone use significantly impaired postural balance recovery when slipping, as demonstrated by increased trunk sway. Mobile phone use negatively impacted gait stability as demonstrated by increased step time variability and decreased harmonic ratios. Increased hazard levels also led to reduced texting accuracy.
Using a mobile phone to text while walking may compete with locomotor tasks, threat assessment and postural balance control mechanisms, which leads to an increased risk of accidental falls in young adults. Pedestrians should therefore be discouraged through new educational and technology-based initiatives (for example a "texting lock" on detection of walking) from texting while walking on roadside footpaths and other environments where substantial hazards to safety exist.
众所周知，使用手机会分散行人注意力，增加他们走入迎面而来的车流或与他人碰撞的可能性。然而，年轻人走路时使用手机发短信对步态稳定性和意外跌倒的影响尚无定论。本研究使用一个70厘米的低摩擦滑倒危险装置以及危险威胁来调查走路时发短信对步态稳定性、滑倒危险后恢复平衡的能力和意外跌倒的影响。
50名健康的年轻人按随机顺序执行六项行走任务和一项坐着发短信的任务。行走在一条10米长的通道上进行。使用了四个递进的危险级别：1）坐着；2）正常行走（在没有滑倒威胁的情况下走过通道）；3）威胁（在有滑倒威胁的情况下行走）；4）滑倒（在实际存在70厘米滑倒危险的情况下行走）。三种行走条件在有和没有手机短信双任务的情况下各重复两次。使用附着在头部、躯干、骨盆和脚部的可穿戴传感器记录步态运动学和躯干姿势。使用重复测量方差分析对研究结果进行分析，显著性设定为 。
如躯干摆动增加所示，使用手机在滑倒时显著损害了姿势平衡恢复。如步长时间变异性增加和谐波比降低所示，使用手机对步态稳定性产生了负面影响。危险级别增加也导致短信发送准确性降低。
走路时使用手机发短信可能会与运动任务、威胁评估和姿势平衡控制机制相互竞争，从而增加年轻人意外跌倒的风险。因此，应通过新的教育和基于技术的举措（例如在检测到行走时启用“短信锁定”）来劝阻行人在路边人行道和其他存在重大安全隐患的环境中走路时发短信。
