Biomechanical Causes of Slow Gait in the Elderly

老年人步态缓慢的生物力学原因

• 批准号: 7074811
• 负责人: DARRYL G THELEN
• 金额: $ 14.73万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-07-01 至 2008-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7074811
• 关键词: biomechanics; clinical research; gait; human old age (65+); human subject

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall objective of this research is to establish a scientific understanding of the biomechanical factors that govern walking performance in the elderly. Walking speed is a common clinical measure of gait performance. Slow walking speed has been associated with falls, can contribute to physical disability and is one of the primary criteria used to describe the syndrome of frailty. Two factors that may contribute to slow walking are reduced muscle strength and decreased flexibility. Intervention studies have shown that elderly adults can often achieve remarkable gains in strength and flexibility through exercise. However, such gains have often not translated into faster walking speeds. These inconsistent outcomes may stem, in part, from a limited understanding of the specific factors that constrain elderly gait performance. This study will use forward dynamic simulations of subject-specific walking patterns to describe the causal relationship between muscle excitations and movement. Analysis of simulations of elderly adult gait will be used to rigorously investigate biomechanical factors that may limit gait speed. Aim 1 will examine the contributions of passive hip flexor stiffness to the multi-joint movements seen in gait. The hypothesis to be tested is that compared to young adults, elderly adults will exhibit a greater reliance on hip flexor tightness to assist swing leg movement as gait speed is increased. Aim 2 will determine whether gait speed is limited by ankle plantarflexor power capacity. The hypothesis is that healthy elderly adults will not demonstrate limitations in ankle power during walking. However as gait speed is increased, it is hypothesized that elderly adults will exhibit an increased dependence on hip muscles to compensate for functional limitations of the ankle plantarflexors to generate forward acceleration. Completion of these aims is an important step toward characterizing the limiting factors to gait among impaired elderly and developing targeted interventions for improving gait performance.

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究的总体目标是建立对控制老年人步行表现的生物力学因素的科学理解。步行速度是临床常用的衡量步态性能的指标。走路速度慢与跌倒有关，可能导致身体残疾，是用来描述虚弱综合征的主要标准之一。导致走路缓慢的两个因素是肌肉力量的减少和柔韧性的降低。干预研究表明，老年人通常可以通过锻炼在力量和柔韧性方面取得显著的进步。然而，这些进步通常并没有转化为更快的步行速度。这些不一致的结果可能部分源于对限制老年人步态表现的特定因素的有限理解。