日本福祉工学会誌 論文 概要日本福祉工学会誌 Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 11-17 (2016) |
The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of auditory cue (AC) and visual cues (VC) on gait initiation for Parkinson disease (PD) patients. Subjects were 10 PD patients and 10 healthy elderly. The task was to take a forward step with no cue (NC), AC, and VC. Center of Pressure (COP) and Center of Mass (COM) distance (COP-COM distance), push force, velocity of COM, and step length were measured and compared these parameters between NC, AC, and VC. Under AC110 condition (110% of comfortable gait pace), the COP-COM distance significantly extended during the phase of gait initiation in comparison with under NC condition. Improvement of push force, velocity of COM, and step length were obtained by AC and VC acting to the extension of the COP-COM distance at preparatory phase and stepping phase, respectively. Although the effect of AC and VC was limited, these results suggested that AC and VC are useful methods for the gait training of PD patients.
Key words:Parkinson Disease, Gait Initiation, Visual and Auditory Cues