Characteristics of the gait in old people who fall.

Observations were made of the gait of 30 people aged 65 and over who were admitted to hospital shortly after suffering a fall without bone injury. These were compared with 22 patients of similar age admitted to the same hospital who had not suffered a recent fall; with 23 normal active old people of whom 7 had fallen recently; and with 24 normal young subjects. The gait of the hospitalized fallers differed from all other groups, and had the following characteristics: slow speed, short step length, narrow stride width, wide range of stepping frequency, large variability of step length, and increasing variability with increasing frequency. These characteristics may reflect loss of automaticity of gait, and this finding may have implications for pathogenesis and rehabilitation.