Abstract
Historically, roofing work has been ranked among the highest of all industries with incidents of fatal and non-fatal falls. The purpose of this study was to investigate the exposure to an elevated inclined surface on postural stability. Twenty males, 10 experienced roofers, and 10 inexperienced college students participated in this study, which consisted of a preliminary balance test, followed by exposure to an elevated inclined surface for ten-minutes of exposure. While subjects walked, a motion analysis system recorded their position on the elevated roofing surface to determine the amount of time a subject spent in each of two areas, central or peripheral. Results suggest that both experienced and inexperienced individuals demonstrated decreased postural stability following exposure to the elevated inclined surface, with experienced individuals demonstrating a lesser decrement. Furthermore, experienced individuals spent a significantly greater portion of time in the peripheral area (extremities of the elevated roofing surface) surface compared to inexperienced individuals. These findings suggest that there is a significant decrement in postural stability due to exposure to an elevated inclined support surface.
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