CHARACTERISTIC OF WALK PARAMETERS IN ELDERLY WOMEN WITH OVERWEIGHT

Background: Identify the features of walking in elderly women with overweight. Materials and Methods: The study involved 109 women aged 55–74. Measurement of length and body weight was performed according to a standard procedure. Calculation of the BMI was made by formula: Body weight (kg) / body length2 (cm). The first group – study group (SG) included women with overweight (n = 162). The second group – comparison group (CG) were taken women with normal body weight (n = 161). Features of walking were studied using the following tests of the computer stabilometric complex “Balance Manager”: 1) Sit-to-stand test; 2) Walk Across; 3) Tandem Walk. The statistical processing of the results was carried out using the “SPSS 23.0” software package. The critical level of significance (p) in testing the statistical hypotheses in the study was p ≤ 0.05. Results: There were a significant decrease in the rising index by 13.8% (p = 0.020) and an increase in the sway velocity by 12.8% (p = 0.002) in elderly women with overweight. Also in the SG, a decrease in the step length by 6% (p = 0.015) and speed of walking of 3.8% (p = 0.023) with a simultaneous increasing in the step width by 9.4% (p = 0.001) can be considered as signs adaptive rearrangements of simple walk parameters with increasing of body weight. Conclusion: Thus, while assessing the spatial-temporal characteristics of motion in women aged 55–74, depending on the BMI, we detected changes that indicate deterioration in the functioning of the neurophysiological mechanisms that provide keeping of the vertical posture.