Saori Miura, RPT, BHSc, Masahiro Satake, RPT, PhD, You Tamura, RPT, BHSc,
Mitsunori Ikeda, RPT, BHSc, Atsuyoshi Kawagoshi, RPT, MS, Keiyu Sugawara, RPT, PhD,
Hitomi Takahashi, RPT, PhD, Mitsunobu Homma MD, PhD, Shunichi Sakata, PhD, Takanobu Shioya, MD, PhD
Jpn J Compr Rehabil Sci 4: 73-79, 2013
Purpose: The primary purpose of this study was to
quantify the walking time in daily life as slow and fast
walking times using a newly improved triaxial
accelerometer system. The secondary purpose was to
study the slow and fast walking times of healthy young
and elderly adults and stable patients with chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) using this
system.
Methods: Twenty-six healthy young subjects, 15
healthy elderly adults, and 11 stable COPD patients
participated in this study. The subjectsf time spent
walking, standing, sitting, and lying down were
assessed using an activity monitoring and evaluation
system (A-MESTM). We evaluated the slow and fast
walking times according to changes in the detection
threshold in the systemfs software.
Results: The distinguishing speed was found to be
2 km/h, and thus we divided the subjectsf walking time
into slow (<2 km/h) and fast (>-2 km/h) walking using
2 km/h to distinguish the speed. Ninety-five percent of
the walking measured by the A-MESTM was slow
walking. The fast walking time of the stable COPD
patients was significantly shorter than that of the
healthy young and elderly adults (p<0.01).
Conclusion: These results suggest that walking time
in daily life can be differentiated as slow (<2 km/h)
and fast (>-2 km/h) walking using a new triaxial
accelerometer system.
Key words: physical activity, triaxial accelerometer, slow walking (<2 km/h), fast walking (>-2 km/h), walking time