Falls during stair descent pose a major health concern. A stronger understanding of recovery from balance loss during stair descent is needed to guide fall prevention strategies and environmental design. We characterized balance recovery strategies, trunk and center-of-mass (COM) kinematics, and handrail use following unexpected forward balance loss during stair descent, and the effect of perturbation magnitude on these outcomes. Eighteen young adults experienced a rapid platform translation during stair descent to disrupt balance. Deception was used to reduce anticipation. All participants used compensatory stepping to recover balance, and most applied forces to the handrail in multiple directions. Higher perturbation magnitude resulted in higher COM velocity and handrail forces, more frequent incomplete steps, and quicker step contact time. Our findings provide a foundation for understanding balance recovery on stairs. The findings emphasize the importance of designing stairways that enable compensatory stepping, and handrails that permit adequate force generation in multiple directions to facilitate balance recovery on stairs.

下楼梯时跌倒是一个主要的健康问题。需要更深入地了解从楼梯下降过程中失去平衡的恢复，以指导跌倒预防策略和环境设计。我们描述了平衡恢复策略、躯干和重心 (COM) 运动学以及楼梯下降期间意外前向平衡损失后扶手的使用，以及扰动幅度对这些结果的影响。18 名年轻人在楼梯下降过程中经历了快速平台平移以破坏平衡。欺骗被用来减少预期。所有参与者都使用补偿性踏步来恢复平衡，并且大多数向扶手施加多个方向的力。更高的扰动幅度导致更高的 COM 速度和扶手力、更频繁的不完整步骤和更快的步骤接触时间。我们的发现为理解楼梯上的平衡恢复提供了基础。研究结果强调了设计能够补偿踏步的楼梯和允许在多个方向产生足够的力以促进楼梯平衡恢复的扶手的重要性。