Frequency Content of Ground Reaction Forces during Walking: A Comparison in the Elderly Fallers and Non-Fallers

Document Type : Original research papers

Authors

1 Department of Sports Biomechanics, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Department of Sports Biomechanics, Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Science, Islamic Azad University of Central Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran.

3 Department of Sports Biomechanics, Sport Sciences Research Institute, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

With the increase in the elderly population, the rate of their falls has also increased significantly and causes serious damage to the health of the elderly and society. Falling causes kinematic and kinetic changes in walking of the elderly. Ground reaction force (GRF) is often measured in gait and fall studies and analyzes and is considered as a criterion for walking evaluation. However, to date, no research has been done on the frequency content of GRF in elderly falls, which appears to be able to identify patterns leading to falls and injuries in the elderly. 22 active elderly women aged 65 to 75 years volunteered for this research. They were grouped into two groups of 11 people with and without a history of falling. The subjects walked along the designated path in the gate lab, the walking data was recorded with a force plate. The frequency content of GRF was extracted by fast Fourier transform (FFT) and MATLAB 2016 software.  Results: This study compared the frequency content of GRF during walking in elderly people with and without a history of falls. The results shown that F99.5% in the anterior-posterior direction and Fmed in the anterior-posterior direction in the fallen group were significantly higher than the non-fallen group. And it did not show any significant change in other trajectories and other variables. It was found that the fallers showed different frequency content. Performing GRF frequency content assessment has the potential to identify fall-related injuries in affected individuals.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

  1. Badley EM. The effect of osteoarthritis on disability and health care use in Canada. The Journal of rheumatology. Supplement. 1995; 43:19-22.
  2. Snijders AH, Van De Warrenburg BP, Giladi N, Bloem BR. Neurological gait disorders in elderly people: clinical approach and classification. The Lancet Neurology. 2007;6(1):63-74.
  3. Wang Y, Wang S, Bolton R, Kaur T, Bhatt T. Effects of task-specific obstacle-induced trip-perturbation training: proactive and reactive adaptation to reduce fall-risk in community-dwelling older adults. Aging clinical and experimental research. 2020; 32:893-905.
  4. Gobelet C, Luthi F, Al-Khodairy AT, Chamberlain MA. Work in inflammatory and degenerative joint diseases. Disability and rehabilitation. 2007;29(17):1331-9.
  5. Cruz-Jimenez M. Normal changes in gait and mobility problems in the elderly. Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics. 2017;28(4):713-25.
  6. Beurskens R, Bock O. Age-related deficits of dual-task walking: a review. Neural plasticity. 2012:131608.
  7. Salkeld G, Ameratunga SN, Cameron ID, Cumming RG, Easter S, Seymour J, Kurrle SE, Quine S, Brown PM. Quality of life related to fear of falling and hip fracture in older women: a time trade off study Commentary: older people's perspectives on life after hip fractures. Bmj. 2000;320(7231):341-6.
  8. Gallagher B, Corbett E, Freeman L, Riddoch-Kennedy A, Miller S, Smith C, Radensky L, Zarrow A. A fall prevention program for the home environment. Home care provider. 2001;6(5):157-63.
  9. Voermans NC, Snijders AH, Schoon Y, Bloem BR. Why old people fall (and how to stop them). Practical neurology. 2007;7(3):158-71.
  10. Dhargave P, Sendhilkumar R. Prevalence of risk factors for falls among elderly people living in long-term care homes. Journal of clinical gerontology and geriatrics. 2016;7(3):99-103.
  11. Pereira C, Veiga G, Almeida G, Matias AR, Cruz-Ferreira A, Mendes F, Bravo J. Key factor cut-offs and interval reference values for stratified fall risk assessment in community-dwelling older adults: the role of physical fitness, body composition, physical activity, health condition, and environmental hazards. BMC public health. 2021; 21:1-0.
  12. Zhu H, Hu K, Liu S, Kim HC, Wang Y, Xue Q. Systematic causality mapping of factors leading to accidental falls of older adults. Public Health in Practice. 2020; 1:100045.
  13. Ambrose AF, Paul G, Hausdorff JM. Risk factors for falls among older adults: a review of the literature. Maturitas. 2013;75(1):51-61.
  14. Dapp U, Vinyard D, Golgert S, Krumpoch S, Freiberger E. Reference values of gait characteristics in community-dwelling older persons with different physical functional levels. BMC geriatrics. 2022;22(1):1-8.
  15. Iaboni A, Flint AJ. The complex interplay of depression and falls in older adults: a clinical review. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. 2013;21(5):484-92.
  16. Beauchet O, Fantino B, Allali G, Muir SW, Montero-Odasso M, Annweiler C. Timed Up and Go test and risk of falls in older adults: a systematic review. The journal of nutrition, health & aging. 2011; 15:933-8.
  17. Park C, Atique MM, Mishra R, Najafi B. Association between fall history and gait, balance, physical activity, depression, fear of falling, and motor capacity: A 6-month follow-up study. International journal of environmental research and public health. 2022;19(17):10785.
  18. Stenhagen M, Ekström H, Nordell E, Elmståhl S. Accidental falls, health-related quality of life and life satisfaction: a prospective study of the general elderly population. Archives of gerontology and geriatrics. 2014;58(1):95-100.
  19. Salarvand SH, Birjandi M. Factors related to falling down in older adults. Iran journal of nursing (IJN). 2009. 51-60.
  20. Lord S.R, Sherrington C, Naganathan V, Falls in Older People Risk Factors, Strategies for Prevention and Implications for Practice. Third Edition. Publisher: Cambridge University Press. 2021, ISBN 13: 9781108655521
  21. Shin JY, Kim YJ, Kim JS, Min SB, Park JN, Bae JH, Seo HE, Shin HS, Yu YE, Lim JY, Jang JS. The correlation between gait and cognitive function in dual-task walking of the elderly with cognitive impairment: a systematic literature review. Korean Society of Physical Medicine. 2022;17(1):93-108.
  22. Toda H, Nagano A, Luo Z. Age and gender differences in the control of vertical ground reaction force by the hip, knee and ankle joints. Journal of physical therapy science. 2015;27(6):1833-8.
  23. Lee LW, Kerrigan DC. Identification of Kinetic Differences Between Fallers and Non-fallers in the Elderly1. American journal of physical medicine & rehabilitation. 1999 ;78(3):242-6.
  24. Kwon MS, Kwon YR, Park YS, Kim JW. Comparison of gait patterns in elderly fallers and non-fallers. Technology and health care. 2018 ;26(S1):427-36.
  25. Meurisse G, Bastien G, Schepens B. Effect of speed on the weight transfer between legs during gait in elderly people. Gait & Posture. 2016; 49:49.
  26. Stergiou N, Giakas G, Byrne JE, Pomeroy V. Frequency domain characteristics of ground reaction forces during walking of young and elderly females. Clinical Biomechanics. 2002;17(8):615-7.
  27. Jafarnezhadgero A, Alizade HS, Dehghani M. The frequency domain of ground reaction forces during running in patients with low back pain: comparing with healthy control group. Medical Journal of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. 2020;42(2):143-51.
  28. Jafarnezhadgero A, Mamashli E, Alizadeh R. Comparison of frequency spectrum of the selected lower limb muscles between patients with diabetic neuropathy and healthy peers during walking. Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine. 2021;9(4):163-72.
  29. Mohler MJ, Wendel CS, Taylor-Piliae RE, Toosizadeh N, Najafi B. Motor performance and physical activity as predictors of prospective falls in community-dwelling older adults by frailty level: application of wearable technology. Gerontology. 2016;62(6):654-64.
  30. McGrath D, Judkins TN, Pipinos II, Johanning JM, Myers SA. Peripheral arterial disease affects the frequency response of ground reaction forces during walking. Clinical Biomechanics. 2012;27(10):1058-63.
  31. Lamb SE, Jørstad‐Stein EC, Hauer K, Becker C, Prevention of Falls Network Europe and Outcomes Consensus Group. Development of a common outcome data set for fall injury prevention trials: the Prevention of Falls Network Europe consensus. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 2005;53(9):1618-22.
  32. Wang S, Bhatt T. Gait kinematics and asymmetries affecting fall risk in people with chronic stroke: a retrospective study. Biomechanics. 2022;2(3):453-65.
  33. Wurdeman SR, Huisinga JM, Filipi M, Stergiou N. Multiple sclerosis affects the frequency content in the vertical ground reaction forces during walking. Clinical biomechanics. 2011;26(2):207-12.
  34. Eslami M, Khezri D, Hoseinnezhad M. The Effect of Two different Types of Shoes out Soles on the Frequency Content of the Ground Reaction Force Components. Studies in Sport Medicine. 2015;6(16):33-44.
  35. Aَbdollahpour Darvishani M, Jafarnezhadgero AA, Dehghani M. Frequency Domain Analysis of Ground Reaction Forces During Walking with and without Immediate Use of Textured Insoles in Blind Males. Journal of Paramedical Sciences & Rehabilitation. 2020;9(2):39-49.
  36. Nicholas Stergiou, Giannis Giakas, Jennifer B Byrne, Valerie pomeroy. Frequency domain characteristics of ground reaction forces during walking of young and elderly females. Clinical Biomechanics. 2002: 615-617.
  37. Anoushirvani S, Heshmati S, Yousefi O, Abdollahpour Darvishani M, Akbarifard L. Comparison of Frequency Spectrum of Ground Reaction Forces and Electromyography‎ Activities in Cerebral Palsy with Healthy Children During Walking. Journal of Paramedical Sciences & Rehabilitation. 2021;10(2):83-96.
  38. Winter DA. Biomechanics and motor control of human movement. John Wiley & Sons; 2009:12.
  39. Safari E, Sokhanguei Y, Fatahi A. The Effect of a Combined Training Course on Selected Biomechanical Variables of Balance, Motor Control, Postural Control and Gait of the Active Elderly Men. Studies in Sport Medicine. 2020;12(27):171-87.

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 28 April 2023
  • Revise Date: 20 May 2023
  • Accept Date: 20 June 2023

Share

How to cite

Statistics