Evaluation of Gait Stability using Medio-Lateral Inclination Angle in Male Adults

Abstract

Human body is hard to be in perfect balance during walking. Most of time the trunk is supported by one leg and the center of mass(COM) falls to the contralateral side. Thus, dynamic variables such as the velocity of the COM should be considered when gait stability is evaluated. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the extrapolated center of mass(XCom) which utilized the COM position and its velocity, is appropriate to evaluate gait stability. Ten healthy adults participated in this study and performed 3 different types of gaits(normal(NG), hands on waists(HWG), and hands on shoulders(HSG)) onto 4 different types of obstacle(obstacle height: 0%, 30%, 40% and 50% of leg length). Medio-lateral Com-CoP and XCom-CoP inclination angle were calculated during support phase. For all condition, greater M-L XCoM-CoP inclination angles were found(p