Abstract
To investigate the perception of verticality in the sitting position by the elderly with care needs, we measured the error between the angles that the elderly considered as the vertical in the sitting position and the actual angle for the elderly in need of care who were in their care units for more than 6 months. We also measured the same angles for healthy elderly persons and healthy young people as a control group. The relationship with rest times and with the ability of daily life was also examined in order to research the cause. The perception of verticality of the elderly with long-term care needs was quite variable and had a tendency to deviate backward compared to healthy elderly and healthy young people, showing the process of using vision for judgment was different. Furthermore, the higher the ability of daily life was in the elderly with long-term care needs, the smaller the difference in the angle was, showing convergence of correct angle differences to the value. These results suggest that searching for the optimum perceptual approach for the task and tying it into exercises, as well as getting subjects to consciously experience verticality in need of long term care.
