Analysis Of Walking Stability Of Old And Young Women Based On Inertial Sensors

This study aimed to evaluate the walking stability of the older women and young women based on the inertial sensors,and explore the best indexes and sensor location to reflect the gait characteristics between the two groups.Method: The subjects were 63-75 year old women,wearing the same sneakers to walk 100 meters at their preferred pace on the playground.Three inertial sensors collected kinematic data while walking.Walking stability was evaluated based on gait variability and maximum Lyapunov exponent.Results: 1.Among the parameters obtained by the heel sensors,only the stride frequency and variability of step height of the elderly was statistically larger than that of the younger;2.Compared with the young’s parameters obtained by the lumbar sensor,the standard deviation and variation of the peak vertical acceleration of the elderly,the root mean square variation coefficient of the vertical acceleration,the amplitude and standard deviation of the vertical and anteroposterior acceleration,and the angle of flexion and extension of the trunk were statistically larger;3.The calculation of the largest Lyapunov exponent showed that compared with young people,the vertical acceleration of the heel and the Euler angle of the waist of the elderly were statistically larger than the data of the young.Conclusions: 1.The parameters that could reflect walking stability obtained by using inertial sensors included peak acceleration in the vertical direction of waist,variation of acceleration amplitude in the vertical direction and forward direction of waist,Lyapunov Exponent of waist Euler angle;2.Compared with young people,the elderly’s gait pattern of foot was more cautious and conservative,whose strategy was larger walking frequency,smaller strides and lower foot clearance;3.Old people’s lower limbs had poorer ability to absorb the impact force generated by foot landing,and their control ability to the trunk in forward direction and vertical direction was worse than that of young people;4.The acceleration characteristic parameters obtained by waist inertial sensor could reflect the difference between young people and old people better,so the waist was the best place to analyze walking stability.