Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate walking standard time and joint powers of the lower extremities on the changes of illuminations in the elderly women. Ten older women ($70.90{\pm}3.28$ years, $154.70{\pm}3.47$ cm, $53.80{\pm}5.39$ kg) with normal vision and no gait disabilities participated in this study. All the experiments were performed on a level walkway from low to high lighting (six conditions). A 3-dimensional motion capturing system, force-plate, and EMG were used to acquire and analyze walking motion, force, and muscle activity data; the sampling frequency was 100 Hz, 1000 Hz and 1000 Hz respectively. To test the differences on walking standard time and joint powers of the lower extremities between the six lighting conditions, one-way repeated ANOVAs were evaluated. The following results were drawn: First, mean standard time was about 1.3 sec/stride, and velocities were smaller with lighting increasing except 100 Lx. Second, the joint power patterns of ankle and knee were not consistent, but only hip joint power was a greatest in 6 Lx and a smallest in 400 Lx. Third, standard times(100 Lx<300 Lx, 400 Lx) were statistically significant, and hip joint max powers (100 Lx>others) were also statistically significant. But ankle and knee joint max power were not statistically significant. These results showed that standard times from low to high lighting were not consistent, and hip joint of 100 Lx has a greatest rotational torque. We suggested that gait strategies of them as to changing illuminations were not consistent and findings may represent a lack of adaptability in the elderly women.
