Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The effect of high-contrast marking of treads on the descent of stairways by low-vision people

2005; Elsevier BV; Volume: 1282; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.ics.2005.05.165

1873-6157

B.P.L.M. den Brinker, L.J. Burgman, Stijn Hogervorst, S.E. Reehorst, S. Kromhout, J. van der Windt,

Injury Epidemiology and Prevention

Increasing the visibility of the treads of stairs may reduce the risk for falls of low-vision people during the descent of stairs. In the first experiment, eight healthy participants (aged 18.8 ± 1.8 years) descended a stairway under two visual conditions (low-contrast or high-contrast marking at the edge of the treads) and two vision conditions (normal vision and low vision). Low vision was simulated by wearing goggles, decreasing the visual acuity to 20/200. Kinematic parameters related to the risk for falls from stairs were used as dependent variables. In the low-vision condition, participants made smaller steps while approaching the low-contrast stairs and descended this stairway more slowly (p > 0.05) than in the other conditions, suggesting that high-contrast treads can compensate for the effects of low visual acuity. In the second experiment, nine participants with age-related macular degeneration (aged 68.3 ± 13.5 years) approached and descended a stairway that was either not marked, marked on the edges of the steps, and marked 5 cm off the edges. The provisional results show that the stride length during the last steps before the descent was shorter, and more misplacements of the foot were observed in the condition (marking at 5 cm from the edge of the treads). It is concluded from the two experiments that marking of treads is beneficial for safely descending stairways and that the marking should be placed on the edge of all treads.