Abstract
The purpose of the study was to clarify the factor for the delayed speed in geriatric gait.
The subjects were 21 elders (average age: 67) and 17 young males (average age: 22) tested for comparison.
The method included filming with 16mm movie camera of the subjects who wore marker (target) at each joint and walked on specially prepared board platform. An analysis was made from the taken film using motion analizer. The average speed for the elder group was 2.44km/h and that of the younger group was 4.16km/h.
The major factors delaing the speed in the elder group were:
(1) difference in cadence (elder group: 84/min. and younger group: 110/min.) and
(2) difference in step length (elder groupe: 48cm. and younger groupe: 63cm)
(1) There were two causes making cadence small in the geriatric group.
(a) double support duration for elder group and younger group were 0.20 seconds and 0.14 seconds, respectively and longer time was required for push-off of the elder group.
(b) swing phase of 0.52 seconds in the elder group was longer than that of the younger group with actual timing of 0.40 seconds. It was thought power for push-off had an influence on this difference.
(2) There were two causes making the step length short in the geriatric group.
(c) step length in the elder group was 7cm shorter than that of the younger group, probably due to the fact that lower extrimity (56cm) in the elder group was shorter than that of younger group (77cm).
(d) step length in the elder group was 8cm shorter than in the younger group, this was probably due to the difference in the joint angles at the time of heel contact.
