Article

Stair negotiation is one of the most difficult and hazardous locomotor tasks for
older adults with fall-related accidences reported frequently. Since knowledge
about inter-joint coordination during stair walking provides insights to
age-related changes in neuromuscular control of gait that can inform prevention
or intervention strategies, the current study investigated the effect of age on
the pattern and variability of inter-joint coordination during stair-floor
transitions during gait. Gait and motion analyses of the lower extremities of 20
young and 20 older adults during floor to stair (F-S) and stair to floor (S-F)
walking transitions provided continuous measures of relative phase (CRP) that
assessed inter-joint coordination of the hip, knee, and angle joints. The mean
absolute relative phase (MARP) and deviation phase (DP) provided descriptive
metrics for CRP pattern and variability respectively. For hip-knee CRP pattern,
older adults demonstrated significantly smaller MARP than young adults in stance
and most swing phases during F-S and S-F. For knee-ankle, older adults showed a
significant smaller MARP of the trailing limb during S-F than young adults. In
most stance and swing phases, the hip-knee DP values of older adults were
significantly lower than that of young adults. Significant lower knee-ankle DP
values of older adults were only detected in swing phase during S-F. The findings
suggest that normal aging adults have less independent control of adjacent joints
compared to younger adults suggesting they have less flexibility to modulate
inter-joints coordination appropriately during stair walking transitions.
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Langue : ANGLAIS