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Table 12 Comparison of the effects of powered walking on the efforts of elderly and impaired users

From: Powered ankle-foot orthoses: the effects of the assistance on healthy and impaired users while walking

Ref. Subjects Pos. assistance magnitude Onset time Metabolic cost Soleus activation
     w.r.t. N w.r.t. U w.r.t. N w.r.t. U
Awad, 2017 [64] ⋆ Str / 28% or 37% / -10% / /
Bae, 2018 [27] ⋆ Str / individualized onset timings from [64], varied between 26% and 40% / -10% / /
Galle, 2017 [21] ♢ H 0.21 W/kg 48% lower but not significant -16% lower but not significant lower but not significant
Galle, 2017 [56] ♢ E 0.11 W/kg 49% lower but not significant -12% / /
Norris, 2007 [55] △∗ H 0.059 W/kg / +8% -5% / /
  E 0.043 W/kg / higher but not significant lower but not significant / /
Sawicki, 2006 [65] △ iSCI / 34% (therapist) / / similar -(7%-19%)
   / 44% (patient) / / similar -(12%-27%)
Takahashi, 2015 [39] ≀ Str 0.018 - 0.023 W/kg 32% higher but not significant lower but not significant -35% -24%
  1. The metabolic cost and the soleus activity during the powered condition are compared to the ones during the unpowered (U) and normal walking (N) conditions. The results of the studies with healthy young subjects performed in [55] and [21] are added as a comparison to the studies on elderly subjects since they have similar assistance magnitudes and onset timings. Contrary to the other studies, the positive assistance magnitude in [21] is given as the sum of the positive assistance magnitudes of the two legs
  2. E: Ederly subjects; iSCI, Str: Incomplete spinal cord and stroke patients; H: Healthy young subjects. Symbols (⋆,♢,△,≀) indicate studies performed by the same research group on similar actuation setups. △∗ indicate a design based on △, but not coming from the same research group. Symbols are consistent between tables. In the works in which different experiments were performed (for example, different onset timings) the common information between the experiments (for example, same type of subjects) is reported only once
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Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation

ISSN: 1743-0003

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