Estimation of lower limb strength for each gender from daily gait movement

Abstract

Weaken lower limb muscle strength for elderly people is a risk of fall and gait disability. Therefore, early detection and prevention of weaken muscle is important. In previous study, relationship between fastest gait movement and lower limb muscle strength was researched, though the purposed measurement method can be difficult for elderly subjects. So, other method which use daily gait movement is needed. In addition, gait movement is different by gender, but there is no study researching about estimation method of muscle strength considering difference of gender. This research aimed to construct model estimating lower limb strength by gender, using daily gait movement. Daily gait movement of 44 healthy subjects (22 for male and 22 for female) were measured. Then, 3 types of estimation model for lower limb strength were constructed; using gait movement data from male, female, and all subjects. As a result, both in single gender data model correlation coefficient of estimated value and measured value is over 0.7 and mean absolute error (MAE) was 0.12 N/kg but lower accuracy was shown in model using data from all subjects including both gender which correlation coefficient is 0.55 and MAE is 0.11 N/kg. Therefore, importance of gender information in analyzing relationship between lower limb strength and gait movement was shown.