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Background. Lateral falls are common in older adults and are associated with an elevated risk of hip fracture, compared with falls in other directions. Although rapid stepping movements can play an important functional role in maintaining balance, control of lateral stepping is a complex and demanding motor task. This study examined whether there are age-related differences in the stepping behavior used to recover from lateral loss of balance.

Methods. Rapid stepping reactions were evoked in healthy, active young (aged 20–30 years; \batchmode \documentclass[fleqn,10pt,legalpaper]{article} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amsmath} \pagestyle{empty} \begin{document} \(\mathrm{N}\ =\ 10\) \end{document}) and older (aged 65–73 years; \batchmode \documentclass[fleqn,10pt,legalpaper]{article} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage …