Abstract
With a primary purpose of clarifying the motion characteristics of stairclimbing, transfer locus of the center of foot pressure was studied by an F-SCAN among 25 subjects (15 healthy adults and 10 patients). The loci of healthy subjects were divided into two types, started at the toe part, transferred to the heel part, and returned to the toe (type A), and started at the heel part and moved to the toe (type B, similar to walking). All the healthy subjects showed type A during descending stairs, with a significantly larger horizontal sway compared with those during ascending stairs (p<0.01). During ascending stairs, healthy subjects exhibited both types A and B. Patients showed marked difficulties in descending stairs, and their loci tended to become similar to those of healthy subjects with a functional improvement. The results also suggested that a cane may play an important role in stabilizing the standing phase. The present measurement of dynamic foot pressure during stairclimbing revealed partly the complexity of posture control in descending stairs.
