Matching Items (2)
Filtering by
- Creators: Buneo, Christopher
- Creators: Zhou, Henghao
- Resource Type: Text
Description
Gait and balance disorders are the second leading cause of falls in the elderly. Investigating the changes in static and dynamic balance due to aging may provide a better understanding of the effects of aging on postural control system. Static and dynamic balance were evaluated in a total of 21 young (21-35 years) and 22 elderly (50-75 years) healthy subjects while they performed three different tasks: quiet standing, dynamic weight shifts, and over ground walking. During the quiet standing task, the subjects stood with their eyes open and eyes closed. When performing dynamic weight shifts task, subjects shifted their Center of Pressure (CoP) from the center target to outward targets and vice versa while following real-time feedback of their CoP. For over ground walking tasks, subjects performed Timed Up and Go test, tandem walking, and regular walking at their self-selected speed. Various quantitative balance and gait measures were obtained to evaluate the above respective balance and walking tasks. Total excursion, sway area, and mean frequency of CoP during quiet standing were found to be the most reliable and showed significant increase with age and absence of visual input. During dynamic shifts, elderly subjects exhibited higher initiation time, initiation path length, movement time, movement path length, and inaccuracy indicating deterioration in performance. Furthermore, the elderly walked with a shorter stride length, increased stride variability, with a greater turn and turn-to-sit duration. Significant correlations were also observed between measures derived from the different balance and gait tasks. Thus, it can be concluded that aging deteriorates the postural control system affecting static and dynamic balance and some of the alterations in CoP and gait measures may be considered as protective mechanisms to prevent loss of balance.
ContributorsBalasubramanian, Shruthi (Author) / Krishnamurthi, Narayanan (Thesis advisor) / Abbas, James (Thesis advisor) / Buneo, Christopher (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The increased risk of falling and the worse ability to perform other daily physical activities in the elderly cause concern about monitoring and correcting basic everyday movement. In this thesis, a Kinect-based system was designed to assess one of the most important factors in balance control of human body when doing Sit-to-Stand (STS) movement: the postural symmetry in mediolateral direction. A symmetry score, calculated by the data obtained from a Kinect RGB-D camera, was proposed to reflect the mediolateral postural symmetry degree and was used to drive a real-time audio feedback designed in MAX/MSP to help users adjust themselves to perform their movement in a more symmetrical way during STS. The symmetry score was verified by calculating the Spearman correlation coefficient with the data obtained from Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensor and got an average value at 0.732. Five healthy adults, four males and one female, with normal balance abilities and with no musculoskeletal disorders, were selected to participate in the experiment and the results showed that the low-cost Kinect-based system has the potential to train users to perform a more symmetrical movement in mediolateral direction during STS movement.
ContributorsZhou, Henghao (Author) / Turaga, Pavan (Thesis advisor) / Ingalls, Todd (Committee member) / Papandreou-Suppappola, Antonia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016