Improve clinical assessment of hip fracture risk by image-based dynamics simulation of sideways fall and impact force

Hip fracture is a common health risk among elderly people worldwide. Sideways or lateral fall has been identified as the most critical situation for the elderly to develop a hip fracture, since the hip is normally covered with a thin layer of soft-tissue that is inadequate to attenuate the impact force. Fall-induced impact force is one of the two determinants of hip fracture, the other is femur strength. Fall-induced impact force is challenging to determine, because it is subject-specific and affected by a number of anthropometric variables such as body weight, height and body mass index. Protected fall test has been adopted in studies of fall dynamics using young volunteers, but it is impractical for elderly people. To resolve this issue, we developed and validated a subject-specific whole-body dynamics model to predict impact force of elderly people in sideways fall.