Evaluation of the age-related changes in movement smoothness in the lower extremity joints during lifting

The purpose of this study was to analyze age-related movement smoothness changes in the lower extremity joints during load lifting. A total of 10 young and 13 elderly subjects participated in the study. Infrared reflective markers were attached to body landmarks in each subject. While the subjects stood on force plates and lifted a box, the marker displacements and ground reaction forces were measured using a 3D motion analysis system. The jerk square mean value (JSM) was defined as the lower extremity joint movement smoothness index during lifting. JSM represented the average of the square of the joint angle third derivative value, according to the jerk third derivative of the position data. Each subject's JSM values were calculated for the hip, knee and ankle joints. Movement smoothness appeared to decrease as JSM increased. Multiple regression analyses were performed for dependent variables (hip, knee and ankle joint JSM values) and independent variables (age, hand grip strength, sex difference and lifting duration). The level of significance was set at p < 0.05. For the hip joint JSM, the regression coefficient for age was significantly positive and that for lifting duration was significantly negative. For the knee joint JSM, the regression coefficient for lifting duration was significantly negative. For the ankle joint JSM, the regression coefficients for age and hand grip strength were significantly positive and that for lifting duration was significantly negative. These results suggest that movement smoothness in the hip and ankle joints during lifting decreases with advancing age.