Evaluation of walking stability

We assessed walking stability, using a portable acceleration measurement system. We measured the acceleration displacement at the center of gravity (COG) of a normal walking subject and evaluated walking stability. We noted the dispersion of high and low acceleration at the COG that is a factor of walking stability. We analyzed the two coefficients of variation (CV) of high and low acceleration in every walking cycle. Comparing same subjects with normal, flat shoes and slippers, we found that the difference of the two CV. In the case of the subjects wearing normal shoes, two kind of CV were within 20%. However, wearing slippers that are hard to walk, the CV for high or low accelerations were over 25%. Moreover by using the method of support vector machine (SVM), we classify walking stability and instability. Using these analyses of CV and SVM provide useful information for understanding walking stability in preventive medicine and rehabilitative medicine.