The guideline on walking ability for elderly people

一个现象，由于老化是功能减退走。因此，迄今为止，许多研究比较了年轻人和老年人之间的步行能力，表明年轻人一般具有更高的步行能力5，7）。老年人的步行能力下降，因为他们的步行变得缓慢，例如由于更窄的步行步幅，松弛的步伐，更长的腿部支撑时间，以及髋关节，膝关节和踝关节中的运动区域更小。也有人指出，这种机能减退是由神经系统调节能力差、骨骼和肌肉力量减弱等原因造成的。其中，肌肉力量减弱可能主要是由于肌肉体积随着年龄的增长而减少，因为肌肉的力量与其横截面积成正比。对人类行走的肌电图研究发现，人类的行走能力与他或她的下肢肌肉力量密切相关。然而，最近有人指出， 关于我们 在行走时，不仅包括大腿和臀部肌肉在内的一组下肢肌肉，而且参与髋关节屈曲的腰大肌也在人体肌肉活动中起重要作用，这表明仅回顾大腿和臀部肌肉活动可能不足以评估行走能力。事实上，Andersson等人1）回顾了行走时腰大肌的表现，发现行走时大腿肌肌电图中出现的振幅也出现在腰大肌上，更重要的是，随着行走速度的增加，该振幅进一步增强。使用160名20多岁至80多岁的男性和女性作为MRI测试对象，我们还审查了更大的腰大肌横截面积，发现70多岁的男女与20多岁的同龄人相比减少了约40%。尽管可以回顾以前的研究，将由于肌肉体积减少而导致的步行速度较慢作为老年人步行能力较差的重要因素，但据我们所知，这些研究都没有成功，本研究旨在验证髋关节与股外侧肌交叉的假说，截面积将随着年龄的增长而减少，从而导致较差的步行能力，同时检查哪些肌肉群对步行能力的影响更大。少

A phenomenon due to aging is the hypofunction to walk. Hence, many studies have so far compared the walking ability between the young and aged, indicating that younger people have a higher walking ability in general5,7). The walking ability of aged people declines because their walking becomes slower such as due to narrower walking strides, slackened steps, a longer leg-supporting time, and smaller areas for motion in hip joints, knee joints, and ankles. It has also been indicated that such hypo-function is caused such as by the nerve-system's poorer regulation capacity and weakened bones as well as muscles strength2). Among them, weakened muscles strength may be mainly due to a decrease in muscle volume with aging since the strength of a muscle is proportional to its cross-sectional area.Electromyographic studies on human walks have found that the walking ability of a human is closely associated with his or her inferior limb muscle strength. Recently, however, it is pointed out that n … More ot only a group of inferior limb muscles including those in thigh and crus regions but also greater psoas muscle which participates in hip joint flection play an important role in human muscle activities at the time of walking, suggesting that review of muscle activities in thigh and crus regions alone may be insufficient for walking ability evaluation. In fact, Andersson, et al.1) reviewed how the greater psoas muscle behaved at the time of walking and found the amplitude that appeared in the electromyogram of thigh muscle at the time of walking also occurring to greater psoas muscle and, more importantly, further intensifying there with increasing speed of walk. Using 160 males and females in their 20s through 80s as MRI test subjects, we also reviewed the greater psoas muscle cross-sectional area, identifying a decrease of about 40 % for both sexes in their 70s compared with the 20s counterparts. Although preceding studies may be reviewed to take the slower speed of walk due to a decrease in muscle volume as an important factor for the aged people's poorer walking ability, none of such studies succeeded, to our best knowledge, in direct verification of the causal relationship between them.This study was thus intended to verify a hypothesis that hip joint and egional thigh muscle cross-sectional areas would decrease with aging to result in poorer walking capability as well as concurrently review which muscle groups more strongly affected the walking ability. Less