| Research Abstract |
Normal and quick walking pattern of 81 men and 79 women aged from 20 to 80 years were filmed by video cameras and analysed for stride length, stride duration, walking speed and joint angles. Walking speed of the subjects older than 65 years becomes slowly according to aging. This is caused mainly by the shortening of the stride length. There is no significant difference in the stride duration between aged and non-aged subjects. Walking posture of the aged people is characterised by an anteversion of the trunk (stoop), flexed hip and knee joints, less range of movement at the angles, but the moving sequence of the limb is always stable regardless of aging. Walking pattern was also analysed by a force platform. From the results of these analyses it was suggested that the alteration of walking pattern (gait) is caused by the reduction of the elasticity and the power of the tendo-muscular system, not by the malfunction of the nervous control system.
Lower limb joint angles were measured during stair up and down motion in 38 men and 107 women aged from 50 to 78. During upstairs movement remarkable changes by aging were not observed in men, but in women the reduction of the muscle power was assumed from the results. In the downstairs movement the range of movement at the knee angle was apparently increased in both men and women. This means that the power of the quadriceps femoris muscle is decreased. Men aged about 50 could go down stairs with flexed knee, because they have the strong quadriceps femoris. Walking speed at downstairs of the women became slower by aging. This may caused by the reduction of the muscle power not only in concentric contraction but also in eccentric contraction. A fine control of the nervous system is necessary for the eccentric contraction. But the reduction of the number of the motor unit may cause the same phenomenon.
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