Inertial sensor based analysis of stair walking strategies, in young healthy adults.

Hoogendoorn, I. (2012) Inertial sensor based analysis of stair walking strategies, in young healthy adults. thesis, Human Movement Sciences.

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Abstract

Stair ambulation is an important activity in daily living, is more physically demanding than level walking, and is considered as one of the most difficult tasks for older people. Yet research on stair ambulation is limited, and faces many methodological hurdles as for most investigations an instrumented staircase is needed. To overcome these methodological hurdles, a portable inertial sensor based method was used to analyze different stair walking strategies in healthy young adults (n=lO) outside laboratory settings. Four three-dimensional inertial sensors, consisting of accelerometers, gyroscopes and earth-magnetic-field sensors were used for estimation of vertical center of mass (COM) velocity, acceleration and power patterns as well as temporal gait parameters. The aim is identification, by visual inspection, of the two main stair gait strategies, Step-Over-Step (SOS) and Step-By-Step (SBS) gait, based on the vertical COM patterns. Identification is possible based on three characteristics; stair ambulation speed, differences in deceleration peak patterns and differences in velocity peak patterns between SOS and SBS gait. Furthermore, SOS gait was performed at a higher speed, and showed higher peak kinematics and powers compared to SBS gait. However, SOS gait performed at the same speed as SBS gait, showed even lower peak kinematics and powers compared with SBS gait, indicating that slow SOS gait is less demanding than SBS gait. Light handrail use showed no effect on speed, peak kinematics or powers. Yet heavy handrail use decreased stair ascent speed slightly, and caused a large decrease in peak kinematics and powers, indicating that heavy handrail use lowers COM power. Also, a first concept of the SBS stair gait cycle is outlined based on the existing SOS gait cycle. Concluding, the portable inertial sensor based method gives insight in different stair gait strategies, and could be implemented, in the future, in fallrelated investigations or monitor stair ambulation after evaluation of the validity and reliability of this method.

Item Type:	Thesis (Thesis)
Supervisor name:	Supervisor: and Zijlstra, Dr. W. and Center for Human Movement Science and University of Groningen
Faculty:	Medical Sciences
Date Deposited:	25 Jun 2020 11:04
Last Modified:	25 Jun 2020 11:04
URI:	https://umcg.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/2451

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