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Although professional bus drivers are required to perform their task while adopting a prolonged constrained sitting posture, existence of possible effects in terms of postural strategies has been scarcely investigated under actual working conditions. This study aimed to characterise modifications of trunk sway in 14 professional bus drivers during regular shifts performed on non-urban routes using a pressure-sensitive mat placed on the seat. Centre-of-pressure (COP) time series were extracted from body-seat pressure data to calculate sway parameters (i.e. sway area, COP path length, COP displacements and velocities). Results show generalised increase in trunk sway as driving progresses, which becomes statistically significant after approximately 70–100 minutes of continuous driving. This may indicate the adoption of specific strategies to cope with discomfort onset or a fatigue-induced alteration of postural features. Trunk sway monitoring of bus drivers may be useful in detecting postural behaviours potentially associated with deteriorating performance and discomfort onset. Practitioner summary: Professional bus drivers operate in sitting position for prolonged time. Such constrained posture may induce discomfort and fatigue. We investigated trunk sway during actual shifts using pressure-sensitive mats. Significant increase of sway was detected after 70 min of continuous driving. Body-seat pressure data could be used as discomfort and fatigue markers. Abbreviations: ANOVA-RM: analysis of variance with repeated measures; AP: antero-posterior; COP: center of pressure; EC: ellipse's centroid; ML: medio-lateral; SA: sway area; SP: sway path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we acquired and processed trunk accelerations during level walking in 85 children aged 8-13 years to calculate spatio-temporal parameters and Harmonic Ratio (HR), which is a metrics representative of gait smoothness and step-to-step symmetry. The results show that while spatio-temporal parameters remain unchanged once normalized considering individuals' anthropometry, significantly higher values of HR for both the antero-posterior and vertical directions were found in participants aged 12-13 with respect to those of 8-9. This indicates an improvement of gait symmetry, which suggests that the gait maturation process is still ongoing for the age ranges tested here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies on locomotion of individuals with the Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) have been performed in a laboratory setting using quantitative motion analysis. Recently, wireless inertial sensors have been successfully employed for gait analysis in different pathological states with the advantages of reproducing a testing condition very close to those encountered in daily living. Using such devices, it is possible not only to characterize the conventional spatio-temporal parameters, but also extract information on further less conventional metrics, such as the harmonic ratio (HR), a measure of step-to-step symmetry based on trunk acceleration processing. In the present study, this technique was used to quantify gait parameters during level walking in 20 adults with PWS who were compared to 20 unaffected individuals. While no differences between the two groups were found in terms of spatio-temporal parameters, individuals with PWS exhibited significantly reduced values of HR in the antero-posterior and vertical directions. Such results, which indicate a poorer gait symmetry in PWS, suggest that upper body accelerations, as well as HR, provide novel information on gait in people with PWS that could not be extracted from spatio-temporal parameters only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among children, postural modifications due to backpack carriage have direct consequences on how forces are exchanged between body and ground and thus on plantar pressure distribution. However, it is unknown whether such alterations are influenced by the foot structure and functionality typical of obesity. In this study, we tested 65 overweight/obese primary schoolchildren using a pressure platform while walking with and without the backpack. Contact areas, arch index, peak and mean plantar pressures in the forefoot, midfoot and rearfoot were compared with those from an additional 65 age- and gender-matched group of normal-weight children. Backpack carriage modified pressure distribution similarly in both groups, with the exception of mean midfoot pressure, which increased significantly among normal-weight children but not in the overweight/obese group. Notably, the pressure values associated with mass excess and backpack carriage still raise some concerns regarding potential long-term adverse consequences on foot structure and functionality of overweight/obese children. Practitioner summary: Backpack carriage by overweight/obese schoolchildren altered plantar pressures similar to what was observed in their normal-weight peers. Yet, high pressures were found among the overweight/obese children. This raises concerns regarding potential long-term adverse consequences on foot structure and functionality, and supports establishing more specific limits for the carried load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we investigated the static balance of adult and adolescent elite soccer players to understand how expertise and playing position influence postural control. Seventy-one national level players were tested using a force platform to acquire Center-of-Pressure (COP) data in uni- and bipedal stance and calculate sway area (SA), COP path length, velocity and displacements. The results show significant differences in postural sway related to age and playing position only for single-limb stance. In particular, midfielders exhibited significantly lower values of SA with respect to defenders (–48%,p= 0.001) and the under-15 players exhibited SA 42–64% higher than all the others (p= 0.001). In the light of planning training or rehabilitation programs specific for each player’s role and age, sway measurements may supply useful, objective and reliable information only for the unipedal test as the bipedal standing appears not challenging enough to let differences in balance abilities emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]