tailieunhanh - Biomechanical Walking Pattern Changes in the Fitand and Healthy Elderly

In the past two decades a number of investigators have attempted to combine measures of mortality and morbidity in order to address issues of whether Americans are living longer, healthy lives, as well as just longer lives. In general, a life-table approach is used to divide increases in years lived into healthy and unhealthy years. These measures have the same useful characteristics as life-table measures based only on mortality. They can be compared across time and place, and they summarize a large amount of age-specific data. Because indicators of disability are the most frequently collected measures in surveys, they have been used most frequently to examine change over. | Physical Therapy J Journal of the American Physical Therapy Association I y PTir Biomechanical Walking Pattern Changes in the Fit and Healthy Elderly David A Winter Aftab E Patla James S Frank and Sharon E Walt PHYS THER. 1990 70 340-347. The online version of this article along with updated information and services can be found online at http content 70 6 340 Collections e-Letters E-mail alerts This article along with others on similar topics appears in the following collection s Falls and Falls Prevention Geriatrics Other Kinesiology Biomechanics To submit an e-Letter on this article click here or click on Submit a response in the right-hand menu under Responses in the online version of this article. Sign up here to receive free e-mail alerts Downloaded from http by guest on December 24 2012 Research Report Biomechanical Walking Pattern Changes in the Fit and Healthy Elderly A descriptive study of the biomechanical variables of the walking patterns of the fit and healthy elderly compared with those of young adults revealed several significant differences. The walking patterns of 15 elderly subjects selected for their active life style and screened for any gait- or balance-related pathological conditions were analyzed. Kinematic and kinetic data for a minimum of 10 repeat walking trials were collected using a video digitizing system and a force platform. Basic kinematic analyses and an inverse dynamics model yielded data based on the following variables temporal and cadence measures heal and toe trajectories joint kinematics joint moments offorce and joint mechanical power generation and absorption. Significant differences between these elderly subjects and a database of young adults revealed the following the same cadence but a shorter step length an increased double-support stance period decreased push-off power a more flat-footed landing and a reduction in their index of dynamic balance. All of these differences except .