Abstract
The purpose of this study was to reveal the characteristics of backward walking of healthy adults. The subjects were 27 undergraduate students of Seirei Christopher University (17 men and 10 women). The items measured were 10 m forward walking, 10 m backward walking, and a VAS (Visual Analog Scale) was used to measure subjective sense of fear just after the backward walking. The speed of walking was free for each subject (free walking) and the walking time (time distance), step number and actual walking distance was measured. From these results, backward walking was found to reduce step width (p<0.001), step rate (p<0.05), walking speed (p<0.001) and walking ratio (p<0.001) compared with forward walking. Sense of fear had no relevance to backward walking. The backward walking of healthy adults was not influenced by psychogenic factor, suggesting that the large reduction in step width controlled the walking speed and rate.
