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Introduction: Comparison of sway parameters of visually impaired participants to that of the sighted population may give insight into the intrinsic risk of falls relative to the surface. Sway is a natural mechanism to adjust the posture and maintain balance. But the sway characteristics on uneven surfaces are ill explored. There is a paucity of evidence on baseline values of sway amplitude in visually impaired women in comparison to sighted women, which underpins the importance of this study. Methods: Eighteen visually impaired young women and an equal number of age-matched sighted peers were recruited by convenience to this prospective observational study. Sway amplitude of the participants were measured using a sway meter on three different surfaces, with eyes opened and closed conditions, using videography and analyzed using Kinovea motion analyzing software. Demographics and participant characteristics were summarized using descriptive statistics. The comparison were performed using independent sample t -test. Results: Visually impaired women demonstrated lower amplitude of sway than sighted young women, irrespective of the surface. Discussion: There was a gradual increase in sway amplitude as the standing surfaces changed from even to sand and pebbles, respectively, for both groups. Implications for Practitioners: Contrary to the existing evidence, the results of this study indicate that visually impaired young individuals may not be not at higher intrinsic risk of falls on various terrains than their sighted peers. The authors hypothesize that the lower sway among visually impaired participants can be attributed to the learned strategy for safety from exposure to real-life pragmatic environments during everyday activities, which enabled them to adopt postural strategies as a safety measure. Hence, this strategy can potentially be used in dynamic situations to decrease the propensity for falls during ambulation in visually impaired individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Gait impairment is a common disability among stroke survivors and is a known risk factor of falls. Outdoor ambulation is essential for everyone, even for basic activities of daily living, but routine assessment of stroke survivors concentrates mainly on indoor ambulation and function. This study is an attempt to document gait parameters in stroke survivors and typical adults during outdoor ambulation. Method: For this prospective pilot study, 7 chronic stroke survivors and 7 age-matched typical adults were recruited by convenience. Measurements were taken of their ankle and subtalar joint angles during various phases of gait, using video analysing software, Kinovea 0.8.15. Results: Large differences in range of motion in the ankle and subtalar joints were noticed between stroke survivors and typical adults during ambulation on various surfaces. During ambulation on a firm surface, plantar flexion range of motion at the ankle was greater at initial contact and mid-stance, whereas on pebbled surfaces vast differences could be seen on initial contact and mid-stance. Conclusion and Implications: Significant stance phase deviations are evident in stroke survivors during ambulation on uneven terrain. This may be a risk for falls and musculoskeletal degeneration. Although definitive conclusions cannot be drawn due to the small sample size, these findings indicate a need for considering outdoor gait evaluation in routine practice in the community. Mobility correlates highly with quality of life and meaningful strategies to adopt safe ambulation methods can be developed only with proper evaluation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: The work capacity assessment (WCA) tool is a new tool developed specifically to assess worker suitability for working conditions in India. This study presents the preliminary results of reliability (interrater) and internal consistency of the WCA tool. AIMS: The aim of this study is to develop a work capacity tool for working conditions in India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The steps for instrument development were followed stringently. The newly developed tool addressed three categories of work: heavy manual labor, sustained labor, and sedentary work. Four participants in heavy manual labor, five in sustained labor, and five in sedentary work performed activities specified by the new scale; videography was done simultaneously. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Internal consistency between the items in the scale was ascertained by Cronbach's alpha. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was calculated for intertester reliability. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Some items in each of the three categories were removed from the final tool due to lack of variance between participants. After omitting these items, alpha was 0.65 and 1 in heavy manual labor, 0.95 and -0.14 in sustained labor, and 0.83 in sedentary work. All test items with the exception of isometric strength and posture sustainability in heavy manual labor correlated well with other items (>0.7). The final tool is fairly robust in terms of internal consistency and reliability. This is a preliminary report, and the tool needs to be further validated before clinical use on a larger and heterogeneous population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]