Development of a Knee-gap Force Measurement Device to Evaluate Quantitative Lower Limb Muscular Strength of the Elderly

Abstract

Falling is one of the most serious problems for the elderly. It is thought that lower limb muscular strength greatly affects falls of the elderly. The aim of this study is to develop a safe, easy-to-use and quantitative device of knee-gap force measurement for evaluation of the lower limb muscular strength, and additionally, we examined it for efficiency. We examined from the three viewpoints. In the results, 1. the knee-gap force is clearly associated with the strength of muscle contraction estimated by electromyogram in each muscle for the hip joint adductors. Therefore, the proposed device for the measurement of knee-gap force correctly estimates the activity of the hip joint adductors, which is closely related with the activities of daily living. 2.The results of knee-gap force measured from 170 people aging from middle age to elderly, including some persons who are suffering from physical frailness on a clinical estimation. In the group of healthy elderly knee-gap force was decreased by 16%, while that of the physically frail elderly was decreased by 34% in comparison to middle age.3. Furthermore, the correlation coefficient between the knee-gap force and 10m obstacle walking time was found to be -0.57 (negative correlation). It means that the ambulatory ability is decreased along with the knee-gap force being decreased. This indicates a possibility easily to estimate risk of falling by the knee-gap force, because the decrease of lower limb muscular strength and ambulatory ability is a factor of increased falling risk.