| Sumario: | Purpose Hip fractures are a major cause of elderly's mortality (Grisso et al., 1990), and insufficient understanding of fall-related hip fracture mechanism results in anticipation that fall deaths increases up to forty-three thousand by 2030 (Burns and Kakara, 2018). Several biomechanical factors have been identified to affect the risk of hip fracture during a fall, but lack of research exists on how the soft tissue covering over the hip area plays in determining hip fracture and whether it is a biomarker of hip fracture. Method Four research studies have been conducted to address this issue. Three have been published as journal articles and one is in preparation for submission to a journal. This symposium summarizes findings of the research studies. Results and Discussion The first study, titled "Soft tissue stiffness over the hip increases with age and its implication in hip fracture risk in older adults" (Lim and Choi, 2019), examined how protective benefits of soft tissue covering over the hip region change with age, and found that the soft tissue stiffness is 26% greater in older than young adults and increases with 1.33N/m every year. The second study, titled "Effect of fall characteristics on the severity of hip impact during a fall on the ground from standing height" (Lim and Choi, 2020), investigated how hip impact force during a fall was affected by mechanics of a fall (i.e., fall direction, knee boundary condition), and found that the actual hip impact force averages 4 kN, which is largely affected by fall mechanics and decreases up to 59%, depending on how they land on the ground. The third study, titled "The effect of the hip impact configuration on the energy absorption provided by the femoral soft tissue during sideways falls" (Lim and Choi, 2021), quantified the amount of energy absorbed by the trochanteric soft tissue during a fall, and how the energy absorption was affected by hip impact configuration. The study found that the energy absorption provided by the femoral soft tissue ranges from 0.03 to 3.05 joule during a fall, and protective benefits are smallest with anterolateral hip impact, compared to lateral or posteriorlateral hip impact. The last study, titled "Correlation between trochanteric soft tissue stiffness and hip fracture risk during sideways falls" examined whether hip fracture risk was predicted with trochanteric soft tissue stiffness. The study found that there exists a linear relationship between the trochanteric soft tissue stiffness and body stiffness during sideways falls. The study also found that the soft tissue stiffness measured by a commercially available clinical device is ineffective in predicting the body stiffness. Conclusion The research provides insights on how the trochanteric soft tissue plays in determining hip fracture risk and whether it is a biomarker of hip fracture, which should help improve intervention strategies for hip fracture prevention in older adults.
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