Impact of mobile phone use on accidental falls risk in young adult pedestrians
Background: 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 inc...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2023-08-01
|
| Series: | Heliyon |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844023055743 |
| _version_ | 1797733045694889984 |
|---|---|
| author | Paulo H.S. Pelicioni Lloyd L.Y. Chan Shuotong Shi Kenny Wong Lauren Kark Yoshiro Okubo Matthew A. Brodie |
| author_facet | Paulo H.S. Pelicioni Lloyd L.Y. Chan Shuotong Shi Kenny Wong Lauren Kark Yoshiro Okubo Matthew A. Brodie |
| author_sort | Paulo H.S. Pelicioni |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: 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. Methods: 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 P≤.05. Results: 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. Conclusions: 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T12:22:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-15a1e77c4a3340c2ba6e762376b8b9e0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2405-8440 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T12:22:19Z |
| publishDate | 2023-08-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Heliyon |
| spelling | doaj.art-15a1e77c4a3340c2ba6e762376b8b9e02023-08-30T05:51:07ZengElsevierHeliyon2405-84402023-08-0198e18366Impact of mobile phone use on accidental falls risk in young adult pedestriansPaulo H.S. Pelicioni0Lloyd L.Y. Chan1Shuotong Shi2Kenny Wong3Lauren Kark4Yoshiro Okubo5Matthew A. Brodie6School of Health Sciences, University of New South Wales, Kensington Campus, NSW 2052, Australia; Neuroscience Research Australia, 139 Barker Street Randwick, NSW 2031, AustraliaNeuroscience Research Australia, 139 Barker Street Randwick, NSW 2031, Australia; School of Population Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, NSW, AustraliaGraduate School of Biomedical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Kensington Campus, NSW 2052, AustraliaGraduate School of Biomedical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Kensington Campus, NSW 2052, AustraliaGraduate School of Biomedical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Kensington Campus, NSW 2052, AustraliaNeuroscience Research Australia, 139 Barker Street Randwick, NSW 2031, Australia; School of Population Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, NSW, AustraliaGraduate School of Biomedical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Kensington Campus, NSW 2052, Australia; Corresponding author. Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering University of New South Wales Kensington NSW 2052 Australia.Background: 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. Methods: 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 P≤.05. Results: 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. Conclusions: 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.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844023055743FallPhoneTextingBalanceWearableRoad safety |
| spellingShingle | Paulo H.S. Pelicioni Lloyd L.Y. Chan Shuotong Shi Kenny Wong Lauren Kark Yoshiro Okubo Matthew A. Brodie Impact of mobile phone use on accidental falls risk in young adult pedestrians Heliyon Fall Phone Texting Balance Wearable Road safety |
| title | Impact of mobile phone use on accidental falls risk in young adult pedestrians |
| title_full | Impact of mobile phone use on accidental falls risk in young adult pedestrians |
| title_fullStr | Impact of mobile phone use on accidental falls risk in young adult pedestrians |
| title_full_unstemmed | Impact of mobile phone use on accidental falls risk in young adult pedestrians |
| title_short | Impact of mobile phone use on accidental falls risk in young adult pedestrians |
| title_sort | impact of mobile phone use on accidental falls risk in young adult pedestrians |
| topic | Fall Phone Texting Balance Wearable Road safety |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844023055743 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT paulohspelicioni impactofmobilephoneuseonaccidentalfallsriskinyoungadultpedestrians AT lloydlychan impactofmobilephoneuseonaccidentalfallsriskinyoungadultpedestrians AT shuotongshi impactofmobilephoneuseonaccidentalfallsriskinyoungadultpedestrians AT kennywong impactofmobilephoneuseonaccidentalfallsriskinyoungadultpedestrians AT laurenkark impactofmobilephoneuseonaccidentalfallsriskinyoungadultpedestrians AT yoshirookubo impactofmobilephoneuseonaccidentalfallsriskinyoungadultpedestrians AT matthewabrodie impactofmobilephoneuseonaccidentalfallsriskinyoungadultpedestrians |