Dr. Jocelyn Hafer, PhD is an assistant professor within the Department of Kinesiology and Applied Physiology at the University of Delaware. She is also the director of the University of Delaware’s Gait Biomechanics Lab. Dr. Hafer’s research interests center around identifying biomechanical and physiological factors that affect gait function and joint health, particularly in aging and knee osteoarthritis.
Tell us a little about yourself, your research journey, and how you arrived where you are now.
“I’m an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Applied Physiology at the University of Delaware. My research focuses on gait biomechanics (the movement of and loads acting on the body during walking) and how gait affects or changes in response to joint health, aging, and muscle function. I was a physiology major interested in musculoskeletal health in general when I was an undergraduate student, and I had the opportunity to work as a research technician in a motion analysis lab after I graduated. At that lab (the Leon Root, MD Motion Analysis Lab at the Hospital for Special Surgery), I learned about biomechanics and eventually decided to pursue a career in biomechanics research.”
Tell us about your research. What is the area of focus, what are your research goals, and what is the significance of the research?
“My research focuses on gait biomechanics and how gait affects or changes in response to joint health, aging, and muscle function. The goal of my research is to better understand the mechanisms by which gait biomechanics affect mobility and joint health. In the big picture, the hope is that a better understanding of these mechanisms might inform the design of effective interventions. Right now, my lab’s projects center around investigating the role of real-world phenomena on gait and mobility. We have some studies where we are directly measuring gait biomechanics in people’s daily lives, which is a novel departure from traditional in-lab studies. In other studies, we are simulating real-world phenomena like pain or muscle fatigue, which are common symptoms in knee osteoarthritis or healthy aging. These studies are important because we have learned that people’s gait biomechanics and behavior are significantly different in daily life than in the lab. So, understanding what is actually going on in the real world is critical for determining the true role of biomechanics on joint health and mobility.”
How has the ACCEL program helped with your project (grant writing, mentorship, help accessing funding, etc)?
“The ACCEL program has provided pilot project funding to support a study investigating the role of muscle fatigue in trip-specific fall risk in adults with knee osteoarthritis. This project is a collaboration with Dr. Jeremy Crenshaw (also faculty in KAAP), who is an expert in biomechanical factors related to fall risk and stability. This project represents foundational work to investigate fall risk during gait from a novel perspective. The ACCEL CTR pilot funding has also provided the opportunity for collaboration between graduate students in my lab and in Dr. Crenshaw’s lab, which was the first experience for most of these students to work directly in a team science environment.”
Have you faced any major obstacles with this project?
“The largest obstacle in most human-subject studies is participant recruitment. Recruitment of participants with knee osteoarthritis has been more of a challenge than we anticipated, but this has given us the opportunity to test out many different recruitment strategies.”
What do you hope to be the impact of this research, and what future directions do you see related research going?
“Muscle fatigue is modifiable with training, and so we hope that, long-term, the results of this ACCEL project will help determine whether training for muscle endurance would be effective for preventing falls. The current work is a pilot project, so the immediate next step would be a larger study if our preliminary findings support our initial hypotheses.”
More information regarding Dr. Hafer, her research, and UD’s Gait Biomechanics Lab can be found here on the University’s website.