Gait muscle activity differences between young, middle - aged and older adults

• Main Author: Hung, Joseph Jia Jun
• Other Authors: Chou Siaw Meng
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/64061
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Muscle activity, along with muscle strength and mass, are reported to decline with age. Previous studies have identified gait muscle activity difference between young and older adults but not many have been done on middle-aged adults. Surface electromyography (SEMG) techniques used to identify muscle activity differences lacked details about SEMG profile alignment protocols. The objective of this project is to examine age-related difference in muscle activity of the lower extremity between young (20-30 years old), middle-aged (40-60 years old) and older (60+ years old) adults for aligned SEMG profiles of ten gait muscles of fifteen participants (five in each age group) in four different types of footwear. After rectifying and processing the data, Student’s t-test was used to compare the data between young and middle-aged adults, middle-aged and older adults and, young and older adults. Significant gait muscle activity differences (p< 0.05) were observed in most of the lower extremity muscles between young and middle-aged adults, middle-aged and older adults, and young and older adults. The four types of footwear have different effects on the muscle activity for the three age groups, with MBT footwear causing the highest activity on older adults.