Exercise and Footwear intervention to improve balance
Our overall work on falls prevention includes novel balance assessment methods to identify deficits, and developing approaches to analyse and improve balance in a wider population without relying solely on voluntary exercise adherence.
Falls are a major cause of injury and death in older adults. Muscle weakness and balance deficits develop gradually with age but can trigger falls. In terms of intervention, balance exercises can boost strength and reduce falls risk, however compliance is a barrier. Textured insoles/mats also improve balance by stimulating foot mechanoreceptors, but have adherence issues too. Footwear embedding texture in the sole could address compliance while delivering sensory stimulation during everyday activities. Our current focuses on this aspect.
In terms of assessment, maintaining balance relies on integrated feedback from proprioceptive, visual and vestibular systems. Clinical assessments quantify balance and sway patterns to evaluate injury or fall risk. However, traditional linear measures of sway provide limited insight compared to non-linear frequency analysis approaches like detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA). DFA assesses self-similarity in sway signaling patterns over time, providing information on balance control contributions from the different systems. Our new fractal analysis method applies DFA to specific frequencies, revealing individual balance system roles not seen in composite DFA results. This could better inform targeted and personalized interventions to improve balance deficits based on the underlying contributing impairment.
Our work aims to test textured footwear for improving balance through added sensory stimulation without a compliance burden. It will also explore whether traditional vs non-linear frequency-specific DFA better detects changes, furthering understanding of mechanisms influencing balance.
Some of our key papers
Use of textured footwear as an intervention for falls in healthy older adults.
Branthwaite, H., Carswell, W., Hirai, S. and Chockalingam, N., 2023. Footwear Science, 15(sup1), pp.S57-S58.
The effect of wearing a diabetic sandal in altering standing balance parameters in people with diabetes and neuropathy.
Naemi, R., Healy, A., Revathi, T., Sundar, L., Chockalingam, N. and Ramachandran, A., 2015. Footwear Science, 7(sup1), pp.S34-S35.
Novel analysis of centre of pressure in textured shoes: a pilot study.
Helen Branthwaite, Wendy Carswell, Shin Hirai, Andrew Greenhalgh, Ben Hunter and Nachiappan Chockalingam (2023) Presented to presented at ISB congress, Fuokuoka, Japan.
A Six Week Homebased Strength and Balance Exercises for Healthy Older Adults.
Widgery, A. Branthwaite H.R. Chockailngam N. (2019) XXVII Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics, July 31 – August 4, 2019, Calgary, Canada. Calgary