TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2016//
TI  - Non-MTC gait cycles: an adaptive toe trajectory control strategy in older adults
JO  - Gait and posture
A1  - Santhiranayagam, Braveena K.
A1  - Sparrow, W. A.
A1  - Lai, Daniel T. H.
A1  - Begg, Rezaul K.
SP  - 73
EP  - 79
VL  - 53
IS  - 
N2  - Minimum-toe-clearance (MTC) above the walking surface is a critical representation of toe-trajectory control due to its association with tripping risk. Not all gait cycles exhibit a clearly defined MTC within the swing phase but there have been few previous accounts of the biomechanical characteristics of non-MTC gait cycles. The present report investigated the within-subject non-MTC gait cycle characteristics of 15 older adults (mean 73.1 years) and 15 young controls (mean 26.1 years). Participants performed the following tasks on a motorized treadmill: preferred speed walking, dual task walking (carrying a glass of water) and a dual-task speed-matched control. Toe position-time coordinates were acquired using a 3 dimensional motion capture system. When MTC was present, toe height at MTC (MTCheight) was extracted. The proportion of non-MTC gait cycles was computed for the age groups and individuals. For non-MTC gait cycles an 'indicative' toe height at the individual's average swing phase time (MTCtime) for observed MTC cycles was averaged across multiple non-MTC gait cycles. In preferred-speed walking Young demonstrated 2.9% non-MTC gait cycles and Older 18.7%. In constrained walking conditions both groups increased non-MTC gait cycles and some older adults revealed over 90%, confirming non-MTC gait cycles as an ageing-related phenomenon in lower limb trajectory control. For all participants median indicative toe-height on non-MTC gait cycles was greater than median MTCheight. This result suggests that eliminating the biomechanically hazardous MTC event by adopting more of the higher-clearance non-MTC gait cycles, is adaptive in reducing the likelihood of toe-ground contact.<br><br>Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0966-6362
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gaitpost.2016.11.044
ID  - ref1
ER  -