Host: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Name : [in Japanese]
Date : September 03, 2017 - September 06, 2017
It is generally agreed that the risk of falling increases with age. Falls in elderly individuals decrease their daily life activity level due to physical damage and increase fear of falling again. It is proposed that many elderly falls occur when walking, and in most, the cause is stumbling. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze the factors of stumbling during normal walking to prevent falls. Then we determine the thumb-floor distance and the angle of lower limb joints, and compare these values during swing phase between elderly group and young group. As the results, the thumb-floor distance in the elderly group was significantly lower than that of the young group at terminal swing (TSw), and the results suggested that elderly individuals tend to stumble at this time. Furthermore, the angle of the knee joint in the elderly group at TSw was significantly higher than that of the young group, and the angle of the ankle joint in elderly people at initial swing (ISw) and mid swing (MSw) was significantly lower than that of the young group. The results suggested that elderly individuals tend to stumble because the knee joint is not sufficiently extended because plantar flexion from TSt to PSw is weak.
