장애물 조건 맥락의 복잡성에 따른 노인의 장애물 보행 특성 연구

Abstract

Older and younger adults show a context-dependent effect when performing more than one movements simultaneously. Although age-associated alterations in avoidance strategies when negotiating obstacles have been extensively studied, there is little information regarding how different execution demands of obstacle crossing affect integration and organization processes in older adults. We examined adaptive mechanisms underlying planning and execution characteristics in complex obstacle avoidance environment. Nine healthy older and 9 young adults participated in the experiment. Spatiotemporal characteristics of the stepping movement were analyzed using a 3D motion capture system. Older adults demonstrated a prolonged stance time before crossing the first obstacle than young adults when the task complexity increased. However, other gait variables such as foot clearance and crossing speed were not affected by the level of task complexity. These results indicate that changes in task complexity of obstacle negotiation appeared to alter the planning stage rather than the implementation of obstacle crossing performance in older adults.