Step Time Variability and Pelvis Acceleration Patterns of Younger and Older Adults: Effects of Footwear and Surface Conditions

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of various shoe features and surfaces on step time variability and pelvis accelerations (RMS) during walking in six younger and 22 older adults. Participants walked at a self-selected speed in five shoe conditions (standard, elevated heel, soft sole, hard sole, and high collar) on two surfaces: level and irregular. Results showed an age-related reduction in step time variability on the irregular surface and increased medio-lateral (ML) acceleration RMS in older people walking on the irregular versus the level surface. When wearing the elevated heel shoes, both young and old participants displayed significant reductions in pelvis ML accelerations, suggesting a compensatory strategy to counteract for lateral instability resulting from heel elevation. Overall, the findings demonstrate that older people are less able than younger ones to meet the stepping adaptability required for negotiating an irregular surface and, as a possible consequence, have more difficulty maintaining frontal plane stability on such a surface.

Gait as a biomarker? Accelerometers reveal that reduced movement quality while walking is associated with Parkinson's disease, ageing and fall risk

“…Similar to previous research [3,8,[10][11][12], we observed that younger people, non-fallers, and those without PD walk faster, and take longer steps, with reduced variability of step time. However, when we assessed these established gait parameters using univariant statistical analysis, we found substantial overlap between the distributions from different groups [18,19], which limits their utility as specific biomarkers at an individual level.…”

“…Accelerometers have previously been connected to the head [3], pelvis [4], trunk [5,6], and even ski boots [7] to provide an inexpensive way to monitor human movement [8]. In clinical settings, accelerometers have been used to identify between-group differences in the gait of old and young [9,10], fallers and non-fallers [11], and people with and without Parkinson's disease (PD) [3,12]. Statistical associations, however, do not necessarily translate into biomarkers, if prevalence is low, as for PD, and falsepositive rates are high.…”

Continuous Monitoring of Turning Mobility and Its Association to Falls and Cognitive Function: A Pilot Study

“…The research on turning that has been performed has been limited to laboratory or clinical investigations. Previous laboratory studies, with kinematics and surface electromyography, showed that young and older adults use different strategies during turning (19)(20)(21). Specifically, older adults, more than younger adults, reduce their walking speed and increase their step width just prior to the turn, suggesting a more cautious strategy (21).…”

Does functional fitness decline in accordance with our expectation? – a pilot study in healthy female

“…This finding suggests that a body’s dynamic balance ability is influenced by lower extremity muscle strength and is a crucial factor that prevents falling. Because stepping and walking entail the support of a single leg movement, aging causes reductions in lateral postural balance and subsequently results in the inability to maintain frontal plane balance [ 1 , 33 ]. Therefore, middle-age women should be conscious of performance decrease in lower extremity muscle strength to prepare for the influences induced by future aging.…”