The Role of Toe-gap Force for the Evaluation of Falling Risk on the Elderly

Abstract

This paper was proposed a toe-gap force measurement to estimate the lower limb muscular power. In the proposed method, the clipping toe-gap force is measured between the great toe and the digitus secundus. The toe-gap force in this situation, is muscles of the lower limb, which are supposed to have roles in the effort against falling. This study was used three experiments to determine whether or not the use of the toe-gap force measurement was useful from a practical viewpoint. First, the aging change in toe-gap force was examined by using the developed measuring device for 361 people included the elderly with physical weakness. Second, to examine the relation between the toe-gap force and falling, we were examined falling experience in a year for 82 healthy volunteers. Third, to examine the relation between muscular power and the toe-gap force, the results of the toe-gap force were compared to the result of the 10 m walking time for 153 healthy volunteers. We found following results: 1. the toe-gap force reflected the lower limb muscular power decrease rapidly from 65 years old. 2. The non-faller group demonstrated the factor of 1.3 greater toe-gap force compared with the faller group. The subjects who have less toe-gap force have experienced many falls. 3. the measured toe-gap force is closely related negative correlation to walking ability. This implies that the lower limb muscular power is reflected on the toe-gap force measurement. It is thus concluded that, the proposed method can be a practically useful method for evaluating quantitatively the lower limb muscular power of the elderly against fall.