Postgraduate Program in Rehabilitation and Functional Performance, Department of Health Sciences, Ribeirão Preto School of Medicine, University of São Paulo (USP), Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.
Physiotherapy Course, Department of Health Sciences, School of Medicine, University of São Paulo (USP), Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.
Aging Clin Exp Res. 2022 Feb;34(2):383-389. doi: 10.1007/s40520-021-01925-9. Epub 2021 Jul 2.
During the walk along the streets, older adults are exposed to various visual stimuli that can affect their gait in a harmful or beneficial way.
To evaluate gait strategies during different situations with and without visual stimulation in older adults to identify the influence of the visual stimulus on these gait parameters.
A total of 200 older adults were divided into 4 groups according to age range between 60 and 102 years. Gait was evaluated in the following situations: (1) habitual gait (HG); (2) gait with the visual stimulation (GVS) provided by a pedestrian traffic light, and (3) GVS associated with a cognitive task (GVS-C). The GAITRite Platinum equipment was used to assess gait variables.
Comparison of GVS and HG revealed that the visual stimulus influences the gait parameters and promotes a gait speed increase. However, to increase their gait speed, older adults aged 60-89 years used strategies of increased step length and cadence, whereas subjects older than 90 years used only strategies of increased cadence. In addition, comparison of GVS and GVS-C revealed a decrease in gait speed in all age ranges when the cognitive task was added, although this reduction was more pronounced in subjects older than 70 years.
Visual stimulus influences the gait parameters in older adults and the strategy used is different depending on their age, a fact that shows that traffic light may be an interesting strategy to improve the gait performance during physical therapy.
老年人在街头行走时，会接触到各种视觉刺激，这些刺激可能会对他们的步态产生有害或有益的影响。
评估老年人在有和没有视觉刺激的不同情况下的步态策略，以确定视觉刺激对这些步态参数的影响。
共有 200 名老年人根据年龄范围分为 4 组，年龄在 60-102 岁之间。在以下情况下评估步态：（1）习惯步态（HG）；（2）行人交通信号灯提供的视觉刺激（GVS）下的步态；（3）与认知任务相关的 GVS（GVS-C）。使用 GAITRite Platinum 设备评估步态变量。
GVS 与 HG 的比较表明，视觉刺激会影响步态参数并促进步速增加。然而，为了提高步速，60-89 岁的老年人使用增加步长和步频的策略，而 90 岁以上的老年人仅使用增加步频的策略。此外，GVS 与 GVS-C 的比较表明，在所有年龄段中，当加入认知任务时，步速都会降低，尽管在 70 岁以上的老年人中这种降低更为明显。
视觉刺激会影响老年人的步态参数，而且所使用的策略因年龄而异，这表明交通信号灯可能是改善物理治疗期间步态表现的一种有趣策略。
