Does Ability to do Proactive Stepping Reflect Ability to do Reactive Stepping?

Abstract

Stepping is the strategy used in standing to prevent fall. Reactive stepping is made when perturbed to fall. Reactive stepping is less assessed in clinical setting, instead, proactive stepping is assessed to measure the risk of fall. Reactive stepping is commonly tested in research settings. This study was done to find relationship between proactive stepping and reactive stepping in healthy adults. We found that proactive stepping ability did not reflect reactive stepping ability. The study suggests that outcomes of proactive stepping measures must be used with caution to understand individual’s ability to do reactive stepping and prevent falling.