Development of screening method for an frail elderly by measurement quantitative lower limb muscular strength

Abstract

Falling is one of the most serious problems for the elderly. The aim of this study was to develop a screening method for identifying factors that increase the risk of falling among the elderly, particularly with regard to lower limb muscular strength. Subjects were 48 elderly volunteers, including 25 classed as healthy and 23 classed as frail. All subjects underwent measurement of lower limb muscular strength via toe gap force and measurement of muscle strength of the hip joint adductor via knee gap force. In the frail group, toe gap force of the right foot was 20% lower than that in the healthy group; toe gap force of the left foot in the frail group was 23% lower than that in the healthy group, while knee gap force was 20% lower. Furthermore, we found that combining left toe gap force and knee gap force gave the highest odds ratio (6.05) with 82.6% sensitivity and 56.0% specificity when the toe gap force was 24 N and the knee gap force was 100 N. Thus, lower limb muscular strength can be used for simple and efficient screening, and approaches to prevent falls can be based on quantitative data such as lower limb muscular strength. © 2010 The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan.