Department of Biomedical Engineering Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -
Eur J Phys Rehabil Med. 2014 Dec;50(6):677-91. Epub 2014 Apr 24.
Fall is a common and a major cause of injuries. It is important to find elderlies who are prone to falls. The majority of serious falls occur during walking among the older adults. Analyzing the spatio-temporal parameters of walking is an easy way of assessment in the clinical setting, but is it capable of distinguishing a faller from a non-faller elderly? Through a systematic review of the literature, the objective of this systematic review was to identify and summarize the differences in the spatio-temporal parameters of walking in elderly fallers and non-fallers and to find out if these parameters are capable of distinguishing a faller from a non-faller. All original research articles which compared any special or temporal walking parameters in faller and non-faller elderlies were systematically searched within the Scopus and Embase databases. Effect size analysis was also done to standardize findings and compare the gait parameters of fallers and non-fallers across the selected studies. The electronic search led to 5381 articles. After title and abstract screening 30 articles were chosen; further assessment of the full texts led to 17 eligible articles for inclusion in the review. It seems that temporal measurements are more sensitive to the detection of risk of fall in elderly people. The results of the 17 selected studies showed that fallers have a tendency toward a slower walking speed and cadence, longer stride time, and double support duration. Also, fallers showed shorter stride and step length, wider step width and more variability in spatio-temporal parameters of gait. According to the effect size analysis, step length, gait speed, stride length and stance time variability were respectively more capable of differentiating faller from non-faller elderlies. However, because of the difference of methodology and number of studies which investigated each parameter, these results are prone to imprecision. Spatio-temporal analysis of level walking is not sufficient and cannot act as a reliable predictor of falls in elderly individuals.
秋季是导致受伤的常见且主要原因。找到易摔倒的老年人很重要。大多数严重的跌倒发生在老年人行走时。分析行走的时空参数是临床评估的一种简单方法,但它能否区分跌倒者和非跌倒者老年人?通过对文献的系统回顾,本系统回顾的目的是确定和总结跌倒者和非跌倒者老年人行走时空参数的差异,并确定这些参数是否能够区分跌倒者和非跌倒者。在 Scopus 和 Embase 数据库中系统地搜索了比较跌倒者和非跌倒者老年人任何特殊或时间行走参数的所有原始研究文章。还进行了效应量分析,以标准化发现并比较所选研究中跌倒者和非跌倒者的步态参数。电子搜索产生了 5381 篇文章。经过标题和摘要筛选,选择了 30 篇文章;进一步评估全文后,有 17 篇符合条件的文章纳入综述。似乎时间测量对检测老年人跌倒风险更敏感。17 项选定研究的结果表明,跌倒者的行走速度和步频较慢,步长时间较长,双支撑时间较长。此外,跌倒者的步长、步长和步宽较小,步态时空参数的变异性较大。根据效应量分析,步长、步态速度、步长和站立时间变异性分别更能区分跌倒者和非跌倒者老年人。然而,由于研究每个参数的方法和研究数量的差异,这些结果可能存在不准确性。水平行走的时空分析还不够,不能作为老年人跌倒的可靠预测指标。