Treppensteigen im Alter: Wodurch wird es beeinflusst? Wie kann es kurzfristig verbessert werden?

Publication: Book/ReportDissertations

Abstract

As people grow older, climbing stairs turns into a challenge of everyday life. By avoiding the use of stairs, older people tend to get socially isolated; the muscles of their lower limbs deteriorate, as does their health in general.
Apart from the proven physiological factors, stair climbing is also impeded by the fact that older people have a negative perception and view of their own stair climbing proficiency.
According to the results of our study, the perception and assessment of the challenging characteristics of stairs are determined by the accessibility of the handrail and the lateral stair delimitation.
The stair self-efficacy of older people increases with laterally delimitated stairs (handrail and wall) compared to open stairs (no lateral delimitation). A positive correlation can be shown between an enhanced stair self-efficacy and the physical performance.
The duration of handrail use during stair descent has been shown to be a predictor for the general stair climbing performance. This predictor allows for the limitations postulated by literature, i.e. that more physical capacities are necessary for stair descent which then triggers the fear of falling down the stairs in older people if they become aware of it (psychologically).
Psychologically registered limitations lead to avoidance behavior. Very often, the reasons for that remain obscure, making it difficult to choose counter-action. A novel approach to the daily challenge of stair climbing might be to enhance stair self-efficacy, referring to the immediate task ahead, by using a cognitive restructuring according to Bandura, thus improving the task-specific performance. In the case of the restructuring method ‘video presentation’ chosen here, an improved stair-climbing performance was shown, irrespective of the video material used (persons, stairs, stair-climbing direction).
Original languageGerman
Place of PublicationKöln
PublisherDeutsche Sporthochschule Köln
Number of pages165
Publication statusPublished - 2018

Citation