Background
It is important to training stairs because ascending and descending stairs are commonly encountered in activities of daily living. The purpose of this study was to present reference data by comparing the difference of lower extremity kinematics with stairs of different height when ascent and descent stairs.
Methods
Twenty-five healthy indivisuals(12 males, 13 females) participated in this study. They ascent and descent the standard(15cm) and low(7.3cm) height stair of 5 steps with attaching inertial measurement unit(IMU).
Lower extremity kinematics were evaluated using markerless motion capture system, IMU technology. First, IMU sensor provided to patients’abdomen, both thigh, shank and foot dorsum. And next, patients climbed up and down the stair of standard and low height. During ascending and descending the stair, degrees of hip, knee joint and ankle joints are detected.
The difference between ascending and descending stair and the difference between the height of stairs were analyzed by paired sample t-test, using SPSS. Statistical significance was defined as P<0.05.
Results
Data were expressed as mean and standard deviation for angles, respectively.
When ascending the stair, there was a significant difference between the standard and low height stair in followings: hip flexion-extension peak angle and range of motion(ROM), hip adduction-abduction peak angle and ROM, hip internal-external rotation peak angle, knee flexion-extension peak angle and ROM, ankle dorsiflexion peak angle and ROM, ankle inversion-eversion peak angle, Table 1.
And when descending the stair, there was a significant difference between the height of stairs in followings : hip flexion-extension ROM, hip internal-external rotation ROM, knee flexion-extension peak angle and ROM, knee internal-external rotation peak angle and ROM, ankle dorsiflexion ROM, ankle inversion-eversion peak angle and ROM, Table 2.
Regardless of the height of the stair, subjects demonstrated greater flexion-extension peak angle and ROM, hip adduction-abduction peak angle and ROM, hip internal-external rotation ROM during stair ascent compared to descent. But ankle dorsiflexion ROM, ankle inversion-eversion ROM and ankle internal rotation peak angle were greater during stair descent compared to ascent, Table 3.
Conclusion
When comparing the differences according to the height of the stair, there was a significant difference mainly in hip joint on ascending stairs, while knee joints show those on descending stairs. Furthermore, ankle joints showed significant differences according to the height of the stair on both ascending and descending.
Regardless of the height of the stair, subjects required greater angle of hip joint during stair ascent compared to descent but subjects used more the ankle joint to descent the stair compared to ascend.
This study presents a normative database which could be used as reference data for gait rehabilitation training for stair. |
