Article

Most traffic accidents involving pedestrians happen during street crossing. Safe
street crossing by older adults requires complex planning and imposes high
cognitive demands. Understanding how street crossing situations affect younger
and older adults' gait is important to create evidence-based policies, education
and training. The objective of this study was to develop and test a method to
evaluate temporo-spatial gait parameters of younger and older adults during
simulated street crossing situations. Twenty-two younger (25+/-2 years old) and
22 older adults (73+/-6 years old) who lived independently in the community
completed 3 walking trials at preferred gait speed and during simulated street
crossing with regular and with reduced time. There were significant differences
between groups (p<0.001) and conditions (p<0.001). Older adults' street crossing
walking speed was higher than their preferred speed (p<0.001). Gait during
simulated street crossing resulted in significant and progressive gait changes.
The methods developed and tested can be used to (1) evaluate if people are at
risk of falls and accidents during street crossing situations, (2) to compare among different groups, and (3) to help establish appropriate times for older
pedestrians to cross streets safely. The current time to cross streets is too short even for healthy older adults.
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Langue : ANGLAIS