Falls: Developing, Understanding, and Communicating Effective Interventions

A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Sensory and Motor Neuroscience".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 December 2025) | Viewed by 1078

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
1. Department of Political, Historical, Religious and Cultural Studies, Karlstad University, 651 88 Karlstad, Sweden
2. Centre for Societal Risk Research, Karlstad University, 651 88 Karlstad, Sweden
Interests: fall prevention; rehabilitation; implementation; evidence-based synthesis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Physiology, University of Freiburg, 79098 Freiburg, Germany
Interests: falls prevention; sensory-motor interventions; proprioception & balance; auditory cueing & neuroprosthetics; multimodal rehabilitation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Falls represent a pervasive health issue with escalating significance across diverse populations. As global demographics shift towards an increasingly older profile, the complexity of fall prevention has emerged as a critical priority in healthcare and research. While aging populations are a primary concern, individuals with neurological disorders and musculoskeletal conditions face even more pronounced risks, creating a multifaceted public health challenge.

This Special Issue is an attempt to address this growing public health concern by synthesizing cutting-edge research and practical innovations in fall management strategies. While remarkable progress has been achieved in the past decades in rehabilitation, technological interventions, and personalized care approaches, the landscape of fall prevention remains complex and challenging. Persistent gaps in fall prevention extend beyond clinical domains, revealing intricate barriers at the intersection of research, healthcare delivery, and policy implementation. Perhaps most critically, the translation of scientific insights into actionable policy represents a profound implementation challenge. Many responsible authorities hesitate to adopt innovative fall prevention strategies, often due to nuanced gaps in understanding intervention mechanisms or ineffective communication of potential transformative benefits. This disconnect between scientific evidence and practical implementation underscores the need for more sophisticated, persuasive knowledge translation and implementation strategies.

This Special Issue invites original research articles, clinical trials, reviews, and perspective papers that explore the following areas of interest:

  • Development and evaluation of novel interventions for fall prevention, including physical therapy, exercise programs, and assistive technologies.
  • Understanding the mechanisms of falls, with a focus on both neurological and biomechanical factors.
  • Exploration of communication and implementation strategies that can improve intervention adoption in clinical practice, including patient education, caregiver involvement, and interprofessional collaboration.

Through this Special Issue, the aim is to bridge the gap between research and clinical application, providing valuable insights for clinicians, researchers, and healthcare providers dedicated to preventing falls.

Dr. Shashank Ghai
Dr. Ishan Ghai
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • gait
  • posture
  • fall prevention
  • balance disorders
  • rehabilitation
  • assistive technology
  • neurological disorders
  • wearable devices
  • intervention strategies
  • clinical practice
  • intervention communication

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 2211 KB  
Article
Comparison of Toe Clearance Characteristics Between Simulated Obstacle Crossing Using Visual Height Cues and Actual Obstacle Crossing
by Mao Kasai, Yumi Machida, Miku Washizu, Kenichi Sugawara and Tomotaka Suzuki
Brain Sci. 2026, 16(2), 248; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci16020248 - 23 Feb 2026
Viewed by 750
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Tripping is a major cause of falls and necessitates accessible training. This study aimed to fundamentally evaluate the biomechanical fidelity of a simplified simulated obstacle-crossing paradigm using visual height cues. Methods: Two experiments that included healthy young adults evaluated toe [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Tripping is a major cause of falls and necessitates accessible training. This study aimed to fundamentally evaluate the biomechanical fidelity of a simplified simulated obstacle-crossing paradigm using visual height cues. Methods: Two experiments that included healthy young adults evaluated toe clearance (TC) responsiveness during simulated crossing to four visual cue heights (Experiment 1: n = 16) and compared it with actual crossing (4–16% leg length) to assess biomechanical fidelity (Experiment 2: n = 18). Linear mixed models were used to analyze the effects of obstacle height, task condition, and walking course on vertical TC metrics, including minimum and maximum clearance and quartile coefficient of variation (QCV) for both the lead and trail limbs. Results: In Experiment 1, TC parameters scaled systematically with cue height (p < 0.001), confirming that visual cues elicited adaptive gait adjustments. In Experiment 2, although the maximum TC scaled similarly across conditions, the minimum TC was systematically reduced in the simulated condition compared to actual obstacle crossing (p < 0.001). Furthermore, the simulated condition exhibited increased QCV (p < 0.001), particularly for the trail limb at the highest obstacle height. Conclusions: Motor intention and execution precision were dissociated in the simulated obstacle crossing. Without physical risk, the central nervous system appeared to prioritize effort economy over the precise fine-tuning of safety margins. These results suggest that task repetition in risk-free simulations alone may be insufficient for acquiring safe obstacle-crossing strategies and highlight the importance of task-relevant feedback for ensuring biomechanical fidelity in fall-prevention research. Full article
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