Article

Despite the common situation of walking on different sloped terrains, previous
work on gait has focused on level terrain. This study aims to assess whether any
age-related differences exist in spatiotemporal and stability parameters when
walking downhill on three different sloped walkways. Two tri-axial accelerometers
were used at the levels of head and pelvis to investigate spatiotemporal
parameters, magnitude (root mean square, RMS), harmonic content of accelerations
(harmonic ratios, HR) and attenuation between body levels (ATT) in 35 older
adults (OA, 69 +/- 4.5 y.o.) and 22 young adults (YA, 22.1 +/- 1.9 y.o.). Older
adults walked at the same speed and cadence as young adults in flat terrain (FL,
0%) and moderate hill (MH, 8%). In the highest slope (PH, 20%), older adults
reduced speed and step length and both groups increased cadence. Age had no
effect on attenuation and RMS profiles. RMS increased with slope in all
directions at both head and pelvis, except, for medio-lateral direction (ML),
with similar head RMS in all slopes. There is an important shift in ATT from
anteroposterior direction (AP) to ML at the highest slope, resulting in smaller
antero-posterior attenuation and greater medio-lateral attenuation. Age
differences appeared in the smoothness (HR) at the flat terrain, with increased
vertical and antero-posterior values for young adults. As slope increased, group
differences disappeared and HR decreased for all directions of motion. In
general, spatiotemporal adaptations to increased slope seem to be part of a
mechanism to improve ML attenuation, in both young and old adults.
CI - Copyright (c) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS