Dr. Tzurei Chen Publishes and Presents Her Research on Falls in Older Adults
Physical Therapy Professor Tzurei Chen recently disseminated two of her research projects. Her studies focus on identifying underlying modifiable risk factors for falls in older adults to enhance early intervention. The overarching goal of Dr. Chen’s research is to better understand how we can use data from sophisticated laboratory based equipment (e.g., 3-D motion analysis and isokinetic testing) to enhance our interpretation of abnormal clinically based tests that are commonly used in practice.
The first project was published in the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and is a retrospective study examining the association of muscle strength and balance control with the amount of time taken to perform performance-based functional tests in older adults. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation has an Impact Factor of 3.077 and is the official journal of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. The second project was presented at the 8th World Congress of Biomechanics and is a prospective study examining the ability of several clinical and biomechanical balance tests to predict future falls. The World Congress of Biomechanics is the premier international meeting in its field. Both projects were conducted with Dr. Li-Shan Chou from the University of Oregon.
The full citations and links to the abstracts are below:
Chen T, Chou L-S. Effects of muscle strength and balance control on sit-to-walk and turn durations in the Timed Up and Go Test. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. 2017;98(12):2471-2476.
Chen T, Chou L-S. Frontal plane center of mass motion during Timed Up and Go Test predicts prospective falls in elderly adults. Oral presentation at: 8th World Congress of Biomechanics. July, 2018; Dublin, Ireland.