Because falls among the elderly can cause serious injury leading to a bedridden state, methods to maintain motor function in the elderly and prevent falls are important. Among falls by the elderly are tripping falls, ...Because falls among the elderly can cause serious injury leading to a bedridden state, methods to maintain motor function in the elderly and prevent falls are important. Among falls by the elderly are tripping falls, in which the forefoot gets caught on the floor to cause the fall. Minimum foot clearance (MFC), the smallest distance between the floor and the foot during the swing phase of gait, has been given attention as a cause of tripping falls, as elderly people at risk of falling have been reported to have low MFC. No research has been done, however, to examine what geriatric factors determine MFC. In this study, various measurements were taken on muscle strength, joint angles, and other characteristics as factors possibly influencing the height of MFC, a multiple regression analysis was performed with MFC as the dependent variable, and those factors with high degrees of influence were extracted. The results revealed that the height of MFC is highly influenced by strength of the hip flexors and angle of ankle dorsiflexion. The results of this study should be taken into consideration when having elderly people do fall prevention training.展开更多
Purpose: Elderly persons may benefit from regular physical exercise to maintain or improve their quality of life and health status. Low adherence to physical exercise, however, is often a problem. A new type of videog...Purpose: Elderly persons may benefit from regular physical exercise to maintain or improve their quality of life and health status. Low adherence to physical exercise, however, is often a problem. A new type of videogames, “exergames”, involving physical motion of the players has recently been developed and is expected to keep elderly people active. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of a newly developed exergame on health benefits such as muscle strength and body balance of elderly people. Methods: We invited 24 healthy community-dwelling elderly persons aged 71.46 ± 4.8 years old (8 men and 16 women) volunteered for this study. We developed a new exergame program for using KinectTM (Microsoft Co., Ltd. Redmond, WA) motion sensor. A single exergame session lasted approximately 30 minutes including warm-up and cool-down sessions. The participants are asked to play the exergame 2 - 3 times per week for 2.5 months at our institute. Maximal isometric muscular strength of major muscles of lower extremities and functional balance were examined before and after the exergame intervention. Result: All participants completed 24 sessions of the exergame program. There were significant improvements in maximal isometric muscular strength of hip joint flexion, and knee joint extension and flexion, of ankle joint dorsiflexion. Also MFC, a significant difference was noted between Pre and Post values. However, there was no statistically significant improvement in the functional balance test. Conclusion: Exergame developed in this study was found to be effective in improving muscular strength of lower extremities.展开更多
文摘Because falls among the elderly can cause serious injury leading to a bedridden state, methods to maintain motor function in the elderly and prevent falls are important. Among falls by the elderly are tripping falls, in which the forefoot gets caught on the floor to cause the fall. Minimum foot clearance (MFC), the smallest distance between the floor and the foot during the swing phase of gait, has been given attention as a cause of tripping falls, as elderly people at risk of falling have been reported to have low MFC. No research has been done, however, to examine what geriatric factors determine MFC. In this study, various measurements were taken on muscle strength, joint angles, and other characteristics as factors possibly influencing the height of MFC, a multiple regression analysis was performed with MFC as the dependent variable, and those factors with high degrees of influence were extracted. The results revealed that the height of MFC is highly influenced by strength of the hip flexors and angle of ankle dorsiflexion. The results of this study should be taken into consideration when having elderly people do fall prevention training.
文摘Purpose: Elderly persons may benefit from regular physical exercise to maintain or improve their quality of life and health status. Low adherence to physical exercise, however, is often a problem. A new type of videogames, “exergames”, involving physical motion of the players has recently been developed and is expected to keep elderly people active. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of a newly developed exergame on health benefits such as muscle strength and body balance of elderly people. Methods: We invited 24 healthy community-dwelling elderly persons aged 71.46 ± 4.8 years old (8 men and 16 women) volunteered for this study. We developed a new exergame program for using KinectTM (Microsoft Co., Ltd. Redmond, WA) motion sensor. A single exergame session lasted approximately 30 minutes including warm-up and cool-down sessions. The participants are asked to play the exergame 2 - 3 times per week for 2.5 months at our institute. Maximal isometric muscular strength of major muscles of lower extremities and functional balance were examined before and after the exergame intervention. Result: All participants completed 24 sessions of the exergame program. There were significant improvements in maximal isometric muscular strength of hip joint flexion, and knee joint extension and flexion, of ankle joint dorsiflexion. Also MFC, a significant difference was noted between Pre and Post values. However, there was no statistically significant improvement in the functional balance test. Conclusion: Exergame developed in this study was found to be effective in improving muscular strength of lower extremities.
