Getting up from the floor : Older peroples´ abilities and experiences

• Objectives: To analyse the movement patterns of people over 75 years of age when getting up from the floor, and to find out what they describe as critical moments in getting up.Design: Observation of old people performing get up from floor and evaluation of experiences in VIDAR evaluation program.Setting: Tests were made in a laboratory environmentParticipants: 20 participants, eleven women and nine men. The mean age was 79 years.Result: Most elderly persons in this case did experience difficulties in getting up. The difficulties were mainly described in legs and were related to discomfort, weakness and balance issues. Most of the participants 18 of 20 made the getting up by themselves. The most of the participants 18 of 20 preferred a getting up including a position kneeling. The most critical part in getting were lifting one leg forward and then stretch the legs after kneeling, 17 of 18 described difficulties in this part.Conclusions: When developing aids to help persons to get up the main goal should be to reduce load on legs and support balance for the user. Training should include balance and muscle exercise of the leg.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Produktionsteknik, arbetsvetenskap och ergonomi (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Elderly

Getting up from floor

Falls

Mobilisation after fall

stand up

experience of getting up

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

art (subject category)