Park Yang Sun, Kim Ji-Won, Kwon Yuri, Kwon Moon-Seok
Dept. of Physical Education, College of Performing Arts and Sports, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea.
Division of Biomedical Engineering, College of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Konkuk University, Chungju-si, Korea.
Iran J Public Health. 2018 May;47(5):666-673.
Incidence of falling in the older-elderly is higher than that of the younger-elderly. In addition, falls occur more in elderly women than in elderly men. However, it is unclear whether age and sex-specific differences exist in gait characteristics of the elderly. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate age- and sex-related differences in gait characteristics of the Korean elderly people.
A total of 75 younger-elderly subjects (age of 65-74 yr; 21 men and 54 women) and 59 older-elderly subjects (age of 75-90 yr; 15 men and 44 women) participated in this study in 2014. All participants walked a distance of 8 m across a GaitRite walkway with self-selected speed. The effects of age and sex on spatiotemporal gait variables in the Korean elderly people were analyzed before and after adjusting height as covariate.
The older-elderly group slowly walked with shorter stride length (<0.05) and step length (<0.05) compared to the younger-elderly, regardless of their height. There was no significant sex difference after adjusting height as covariate, although elderly women walked with shorter stride length (<0.01) and step length (<0.01) than elderly men. The elderly women group walked with more variable stride time (<0.05) and with longer double support (<0.01).
Age-related changes and sex difference among the elderly existed in specific gait variables. Characterizing gait patterns of the Korean elderly people considering both age and sex would be beneficial to assess gait of the elderly with risk of falls for fall interventions.
高龄老年人的跌倒发生率高于低龄老年人。此外，老年女性跌倒的发生率高于老年男性。然而，目前尚不清楚老年人的步态特征是否存在年龄和性别特异性差异。因此，本研究旨在调查韩国老年人步态特征的年龄和性别相关差异。
2014年共有75名低龄老年人（年龄65 - 74岁；男性21名，女性54名）和59名高龄老年人（年龄75 - 90岁；男性15名，女性44名）参与本研究。所有参与者以自定速度在GaitRite步道上行走8米。在将身高作为协变量进行调整前后，分析年龄和性别对韩国老年人时空步态变量的影响。
无论身高如何，高龄老年人组与低龄老年人相比，步幅长度（<0.05）和步长（<0.05）较短，行走速度较慢。在将身高作为协变量进行调整后，虽然老年女性的步幅长度（<0.01）和步长（<0.01）比老年男性短，但性别差异不显著。老年女性组的步幅时间变化更大（<0.05），双支撑时间更长（<0.01）。
老年人在特定步态变量中存在与年龄相关的变化和性别差异。综合考虑年龄和性别的韩国老年人步态模式特征，将有助于评估有跌倒风险的老年人的步态，以便进行跌倒干预。
