Frequency Content of Ground Reaction Forces during Walking: A Comparison in the Elderly Fallers and Non-Fallers

With the increase in the elderly population, the rate of their falls has also increased significantly and causes serious damage to the health of the elderly and society. Falling causes kinematic and kinetic changes in walking of the elderly. Ground reaction force (GRF) is often measured in gait and fall studies and analyzes and is considered as a criterion for walking evaluation. However, to date, no research has been done on the frequency content of GRF in elderly falls, which appears to be able to identify patterns leading to falls and injuries in the elderly. 22 active elderly women aged 65 to 75 years volunteered for this research. They were grouped into two groups of 11 people with and without a history of falling. The subjects walked along the designated path in the gate lab, the walking data was recorded with a force plate. The frequency content of GRF was extracted by fast Fourier transform (FFT) and MATLAB 2016 software.  Results This study compared the frequency content of GRF during walking in elderly people with and without a history of falls. The results shown that F99.5% in the anterior-posterior direction and Fmed in the anterior-posterior direction in the fallen group were significantly higher than the non-fallen group. And it did not show any significant change in other trajectories and other variables. It was found that the fallers showed different frequency content. Performing GRF frequency content assessment has the potential to identify fall-related injuries in affected individuals.