Abstract
To clarify the peculiarities of gait in elderly Japanese we used a gait test which consisted of qualitative and quantitative analysis of gross observations of free walking for 10 m recorded by pen oscillography on a polygraph of 7 phenomena : 5 of which with the aid of a five-channel telemeter, head movements (upward-downward, right-left, and forward-backward), activity of both soleus muscles, and bilateral foot-floor contact sequences.
The power spectrum and correlation analyses were carried out with a PDP-11 computer.
1) In normal young adults, head movement recording revealed regular upward-downward movement and forward-backward inclination twice in each walking cycle and regular right-left inclination once in each walking cycle. Each soleus muscle was activated in the stance phase once in each walking cycle.
2) In the elderly, the rhythm of foot-floor contact and the smooth-reciprocal swinging of the arms in free gait were often more disturbed with age when the eyes were closed than when they were open. Time required for walking 10 m, step width, and inclination length tended to increase, while cadence and step length tended to decrease with age.
3) In the elderly, the irregular right-left and forward-backward sway often increased, and the pattern of soleus muscles activity during walking was irregular.
These changes of free gait in the elderly are caused not only by aging changes of the skeleto-muscular structure but also by the effect of age on proprioceptive postural regulation.
