高齢者における体幹姿勢が歩行動作の力学的エネルギー利用の有効性に及ぼす影響

抄録

The purpose of this study was to investigate effects of the trunk lean during gait on the use of mechanical energy in elderly people. Ten health elderly people were asked to walk in the conditions of normal for the subjects and in trunk-leaned position, that is lumbar flexion position with a brace. The gait motion was captured with VICON MX T-series and the ground reaction forces during support phase were collected with two Kistler force platforms. With the increase in the trunk forward lean, the positive work at the hip increased. However, the negative work at the knee decreased in the range of 0 to 15 degrees trunk lean but increased beyond 15 degrees. The result indicated that the effectiveness of mechanical energy use in gait for the elderly people decreased with the trunk forward lean more than 15 degrees due to the increase in the mechanical work done by the leg joints.