Safe landing strategies during a fall: Systemic review and meta-analysis

Publication date: Available online 31 August 2016
Source:Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Author(s): Yaejin Moon, Jacob J. Sosnoff
ObjectiveTo systematically synthesize information on safe landing strategies for a fall and quantitatively examine the effects of the strategies to reduce risk of injury from a fall.Data SourcesPubMed, Web of science, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and Cochrane LibraryStudy SelectionDatabases were searched using the combinations of keywords of "falls", "strategy", "impact" and "load". Randomized control trials, cohort studies, pre-post studies, or cross-sectional studies were included.Data ExtractionThe fall strategies were extracted and categorized by falling direction. Measurements of impact loads that reflect the risk of injuries were extracted (e.g. impact velocity, impact force, fall duration, and impact angle). Hedges g was used as effect size to quantify effect of a protective landing strategy to reduce the impact load.Data SynthesisA total of seven landing strategies (squatting, elbow flexion, forward rotation, martial arts rolling, martial arts slapping, relaxed muscle, and stepping) in 13 studies were examined. In general, all strategies, except for the martial arts slapping technique, significantly reduced impact load (g's=0.73 to 2.70). Squatting was an efficient strategy to reduce impact in backward falling (g=1.77) while elbow flexion with outstretched arms was effective in forward falling (g=0.82). Also, in sideways falling strategies, martial arts rolling (g=2.70) and forward rotation (g=0.82) were the most efficient strategies to reduce impact load.ConclusionsThe result showed that landing strategies have significant effect on reducing impact load during a fall and might be effective to reduce impact load of falling. The current study also highlighted limitations of the previous studies which focused on a young population and self-initiated falls. Further investigation with elderly individuals and unexpected falls is necessary to verify effectiveness and suitableness of the strategies to at-risk population in real-life falls.



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