CHARACTERISTICS OF JOINT MECHANICAL WORK IN MALE AND FEMALE ELDERLY DURING WALKING IN CONSIDERATION OF VELOCITY

Abstract

Previous studies about how the elderly walk have reported their kinematical and kinetic characteristics by comparing their motions with those of young walkers (Murray et al., 1969; Hageman and Blanke, 1986; Blanke and Hageman, 1989; Winter et al., 1990; Kaneko et al., 1991; Judge et al., 1996). The results from these studies contain both the effects of aging and walking velocity because walking velocities of the elderly and the young differed from each other and the velocity strongly affects most biomechanical variables. In addition, the change in walking motion with aging after sixty has rarely been reported, and the differences between elderly male and female walkers were also not clear. This study seeks to clarify the differences in the characteristics of joint mechanical output and contribution during walking between different age groups and sexes for the elderly in consideration of walking velocity.