Energy cost of ambulation in health and disability: a literature review.
The literature concerning ambulation of normal and disabled persons--amputees, hemiplegics, and paraplegics--is reviewed. Also reviewed are studies of the energy cost of ambulating with assistive devices and of wheelchair locomotion. According to an average of the results available from the literature, a normal expenditure (Ee) of 0.063 kcal/min/kg and 0.00764 kcal/meter/kg. The disabled person walks more slowly, to avoid incurring an increase in Ec/minute. The more disabled the person, the more determinants of gait lost; thus, the more slowly he walks and the less efficient he becomes in terms of Ee/kcal/unit distance. The importance of a common terminology when measuring the energy cost of ambulation and the need to allow subjects to walk at their own most comfortable walking speed are stressed.
D000674:Amputees; D001186:Artificial Limbs; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D003446:Crutches; D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D005684:Gait; D006429:Hemiplegia / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007717:Knee; D007866:Leg; D008124:Locomotion; D010264:Paraplegia / Q000503:physiopathology; D014910:Wheelchairs