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Abstract

Falls are highly common causes of health problems and injuries, especially in the elderly population.Fall risk can be predicted from fall history, questionnaires, and clinical and instrumental tests in both static and dynamic conditions.During the last decade, dynamic stability assessment during gait has been widely discussed because the majority of falls occur in dynamic conditions.There are many different approaches for dynamic stability assessment; therefore, this study aimed to summarise articles related to stability assessment during gait in relation to fall risk and fall history.Three databases were searched, and 23 articles met the inclusion and exclusion criteria.This review was focused on studies of continuous human gait in laboratory environments; therefore, articles that discussed models, robots or measurements during daily life activities were excluded.The most frequently used variables to determine gait stability and variability were short-term and long-term local dynamic stability exponents and spatial-temporal gait characteristics.According to the results of our analysis, direct relationships with fall history and fall risk determined using clinical tests and questionnaires was found for nonlinear variables and spatial-temporal gait variables and their variability.Nonlinear variables were sufficient for distinguishing patients with musculoskeletal and neurological disorders from healthy subjects and, in combination with the variability of spatial-temporal gait characteristics, were sufficient for distinguishing various age groups.