Search

BACKGROUND: Aging-related deterioration of the lower limb muscle strength could highly influence the functional performance of elderly individuals. OBJECTIVE: To investigate how advancing age impacts the lower limb muscle strength and consequently affects the balance and walking performance. METHODS: Twenty-seven community-dwelling elderly females underwent isokinetic ankle dorsi/plantar flexion (ADF/APF), inversion/eversion (AIN/AEV), knee flexion/extension (KFL/KEX), hip flexion/extension (HFL/HEX), and abduction/adduction (HAB/HAD) tests, the six-minute walk test, open-eyed biped balance test on foam rubber and the performance-oriented mobility assessment (POMA). RESULTS: The Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficients demonstrated that advancing age negatively influenced the relative work and moment produced in all the muscle groups, the POMA score (r = - 0.51), walking speed (r = - 0.62), and the vertical (r = 0.55) and anteroposterior (r = 0.54) postural sway velocities. The peak moment and work values of AINs and APFs; KFLs and KEXs; and HABs, HFLs, and HEXs showed a significantly positive correlation with the walking speed (α ⩽ 0.05). CONCLUSION: The strength of HFLs, HEXs and HABs, as the important contributors to the walking performance, underwent attenuation as the age increased, consequently resulting in impairments of stepping profiles of elderly females. Elderly females are needed to be trained to reach the optimum levels of lower limb muscular strength to overcome premature incapacitation and have control over their independence in daily activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]