Biomechanical Analysis of Unpredictable Gait Termination in Elderly Adults and Young Adults
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Chien, Yu-Ting
Abstract
Falling in the elderly is a serious medical and social problem and it is a vital reason that causes death in the elderly. From the literature review, 50% of falling happened in daily activities especially when gait transition such as gait initiation, termination, obstacle crossing and so on. In the present study, older and young healthy adults were recruited to investigate the control of gait stability due to aging with motion analysis techniques. Compared to the baseline data in the young group, the elderly had greater AP COM displacement and needed longer reaction time to achieve stable gait termination. On the other hand, the elderly had smaller AP braking force in the leading limb and greater COM-COP separation. This result could be the compensation for the reduced braking force which would lead to instability or falling during gait termination. The elderly also had greater hip and knee flexion angle in different cadences. This was because the elderly had lower COM vertical position to achieve gait termination. Therefore, they used different strategy to complete gait termination.
To understand the control of gait stability, the results of biomechanical analysis in every aspect could provide sufficient information of effective gait termination strategies in the elderly.
Subjects
gait termination
kinematics
kinetics
aging
center of mass
Type
thesis
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