2004 Volume 19 Issue 2 Pages 75-79
A decline in joint position sense invites the danger of sudden falls for the elderly. There is considered one general evaluation to measure joint position sense. This method of measurement however has many vague and unclear points. In this research using young healthy adults, as basic research for joint position sense measurement, we examined the influence of joint position sense error and the differences between the angles (i.e. the speed of movement between 2 points of origin within an angle). We measured the knee joint position sense using Barrett's method on 44 limbs (22 young subjects). Starting position was knee flexion at 90 degrees. Angles were set at 10 degrees and 70 degrees and each average knee joint extension speed 10 degrees/sec, 70 degrees/sec was measured. As a result, it was evident that it was easy to make errors on the 70 degree extension speed test when compared to the 10 degree angle flexion speed set up. From this observation, knee joint sense as a part of a set angle was thought to have had an influence on the angle speed for the set joint angle. This influence is thought to be related to a mechanoreceptor although it cannot be said for sure. Taking these points into consideration for future clinical measurements it is thought that this experiment would not make a good time indicator.
