EFFECT OF ILLUMINATION ON THE OBSTACLE-CROSSING BEHAVIORS OF ELDERLY WOMEN

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine how illumination affect elderly women when stepping over obstacles. A motion capture system was used to collect the kinematics data of 15 elderly women. The results revealed that the obstacle-crossing behavior of elderly women were affected by the illumination. Compare to the high illumination condition, the elderly women decreased their toe distance and heel distance (p<0.05), increased their foot clearance (p<0.05) to avoid connecting with the obstacle, the range of COM (center of mass) was larger. It was concluded that the obstacle-crossing behaviors in elderly varied with the intensity of the illumination.