지면 경사도에 따른 후방 낙상 시 소뇌성 운동실조증 환자의 자세제어 특성 연구

Abstract

The Cerebellar damage leads to falls due to the impairments in balance control, and secondary damage is a terrifying factor that may cause injuries. Concerning the fear of falls in patients with cerebellar disease (CD), this study examined the kinematic characteristics on body control abilities such as the movements of the upper and lower limbs and the motion of stepping to recover the balance when a back fall is occurred with increased ground inclination. Eight patients diagnosed with CD and 8 age-matched normal controls (NC) participated in the study. We evaluated the ability to recover the balance independently through stepping movements by causing the situation of a backward fall with the lean-and-release method and four different ground inclination conditions. The results demonstrated that there were no differences between two groups in overall stepping characteristics such as total steps, initiation time and step distance. However, the distance between the foot and body COM was shorter and velocity of COM movement at landing of first step was higher in CD than NC as the ground inclination increased. These findings indicate that patients with cerebellar disease used an inefficient movement strategy that does not help to recover their trunk motion from falling when fear of falling is elevated.