Handrails can significantly reduce the risk of a fall, provided that their design enables fast, accurate and effective grasping reactions for balance recovery. This thesis characterizes the influence of handrail height on balance recovery reactions in younger and older adults.

Common strategies for balance recovery and factors that are likely to influence a person’s ability to use a handrail for balance recovery are identified through a literature review. Lab-based studies involving perturbations of upright stance and during ongoing gait (level-walking and slope descent) are then used to explore the relationship between handrail height and balance recovery.

Following perturbations of upright stance, higher handrails (within the range tested) increased the highest perturbation magnitude that younger adults could withstand without stepping or falling, while using the rail for balance recovery. Higher rails also resulted in reductions to peak center of mass and trunk angular displacement, velocity and momentum during balance recovery. The concomitant peak vertical and resultant handrail forces, and resultant handrail impulse, were reduced as rail height increased.

Handrail height significantly affected handrail contact and movement time during slope descent, with movement time optimized for older adults around 64% of participant height (roughly elbow height). In general, increased handrail height also resulted in increased hand speeds, and reduced vertical handrail overshoot. For both slope descent and level gait, increased rail height led to reduced peak trunk displacements and velocities, and applied handrail forces. However, the peak thoracohumeral elevation angles required for recovery also increased with handrail height, clearly surpassing the range of motion of individuals with severe osteoarthritis in the shoulder.

My results indicate that handrails installed at 56% to 66% of individual height (approximately mid-forearm- to elbow-height) may be advantageous for balance recovery, particularly in home environments where handrail installation height can be customized to the user.