ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Netw. Physiol.
Sec. Fractal Physiology
Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnetp.2025.1532700
This article is part of the Research Topic The New Frontier of Network Physiology: From Temporal Dynamics to the Synchronization and Principles of Integration in Networks of Physiological Systems, Volume III View all 9 articles
Restoring the complexity of walking in the elderly and its impact on clinical measures around the risk of falls
Provisionally accepted
- 1 Union Nationale Sportive Léo Lagrange, Paris, France
- 2 Euromov Digital Health in Motion, Montpellier, France
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The hypothesis of the loss of complexity with aging and disease has received strong attention. Especially, the decrease of complexity of stride interval series in older people, during walking, was shown to correlate with falling propensity. However, recent experiments showed that a restoration of walking complexity in older people could occur through the prolonged experience of synchronized walking with a younger companion. This result was interpreted as the consequence of a complexity matching effect. The aim of the present study was to analyze the link between the restoration of walking complexity in older people and clinical measures usually used in the context of rehabilitation or followup of older people. We evidenced a link between restoring complexity, improving overall health and reducing fear of falling. In addition, we showed that 3 weeks of complexity matching training can have a positive effect on complexity up to 2 months post-protocol. Finally, we showed that the restoration of walking complexity obtained in the previous works is not guide-dependent.
Keywords: Rehabilitation, Aging, Locomotion, Complexity, falls, Network physiology
Received: 22 Nov 2024; Accepted: 18 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ezzina, Pla and Delignieres. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Samar Ezzina, Union Nationale Sportive Léo Lagrange, Paris, France
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