Department of Human Movement Science, Incheon National University, Incheon 22012, Republic of Korea.
Neuromechanical Rehabilitation Research Laboratory, Incheon National University, Incheon 22012, Republic of Korea.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan 25;20(3):2153. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20032153.
Older women may experience critical neuromuscular impairments interfering with controlling successful bimanual motor actions. Our study aimed to investigate altered bimanual motor performances in older women compared with younger women by focusing on kinetic and kinematic motor properties. Twenty-two older women and 22 younger women performed bimanual kinetic and kinematic motor tasks. To estimate bimanual kinetic functions, we calculated bimanual maximal voluntary contractions (i.e., MVC) and force control capabilities (i.e., mean force, accuracy, variability, and regularity of the total force produced by two hands) during bimanual hand-grip submaximal force control tasks. For bimanual kinematic performances, we assessed the scores of the Purdue Pegboard Test (i.e., PPT) in both hands and assembly tasks, respectively. For the bimanual MVC and PPT, we conducted an independent -test between two groups. The bimanual force control capabilities were analyzed using two-way mixed ANOVAs (Group × Force Level; 2 × 2). Our findings revealed that the older women showed less bimanual MVC ( = 0.046) and submaximal force outputs ( = 0.036) and greater changes in bimanual force control capabilities as indicated by a greater force variability ( = 0.017) and regularity ( = 0.014). Further, the older women revealed lower scores of PPT in both the hands condition ( < 0.001) and assembly task condition ( < 0.001). The additional correlation analyses for the older women showed that lower levels of skeletal muscle mass were related to less bimanual MVC ( = 0.591; = 0.004). Furthermore, a higher age was related to lower scores in the bimanual PPT assembly task ( = -0.427; = 0.048). These findings suggested that older women experience greater changes in bimanual motor functions compared with younger women.
老年女性可能会出现严重的神经肌肉功能障碍，影响双手运动的控制。我们的研究旨在通过研究运动学和运动学的运动特性，调查老年女性与年轻女性相比双手运动表现的变化。22 名老年女性和 22 名年轻女性进行了双手的运动学和动力学运动任务。为了估计双手的动力学功能，我们在双手握力次最大力控制任务中计算了双手最大自主收缩（即 MVC）和力控制能力（即双手产生的总力的平均值、准确性、变异性和规律性）。对于双手运动学表现，我们分别评估了双手普渡钉板测试（即 PPT）的分数和装配任务的分数。对于双手 MVC 和 PPT，我们在两组之间进行了独立样本 t 检验。双手力控制能力采用双因素混合方差分析（组×力水平；2×2）进行分析。我们的研究结果表明，老年女性的双手 MVC（ = 0.046）和次最大力输出（ = 0.036）较低，双手力控制能力的变化较大，表现为更大的力变异性（ = 0.017）和规律性（ = 0.014）。此外，老年女性在双手条件下（<0.001）和装配任务条件下（<0.001）的 PPT 分数较低。对于老年女性的额外相关分析表明，较低的骨骼肌质量水平与较低的双手 MVC 相关（ = 0.591； = 0.004）。此外，年龄较大与双手 PPT 装配任务的分数较低相关（ = -0.427； = 0.048）。这些发现表明，与年轻女性相比，老年女性双手运动功能的变化更大。
