模擬老年人步態負重之評估

The research was aimed to simulate the gait of older people through distributing load bearing. The weight each subject loaded on their bodies was calculated according to the muscle strength degeneration rates and their body weights. The degeneration rates were ranged from 0% to 30% (gain 5% per increment) and converted into different weights of loading. By investigating lower limbs, this study expects that this simulation method of different loadings can be a substitute method to analyze the gait of older people for future studies. 6 healthy young women volunteered for this study, load appliance were put on to simulate elder gait. Furthermore, Vicon Motion Capture System was used to capture the kinematics data of gaits under different loadings. The result indicated gait velocity and angle of ankles joint were reduced with the increasing of degeneration rates; height of knee and stride length were shortened with the increasing of degeneration rates, but there was no significant difference (p＞.05). Stride time, cadence, step width, height of ankle, single support and double support during the walking motion were all significantly different among different degradation rates (p＜.05). Although these findings were very close to previous studies in kinematic analysis, this study should validate the simulation approach by the actual elder gait in further studies. It would be hope it is feasible to simulate elder gait by using young subjects through load carrying in the future.