cautious gait patterns , characterized by lower walking velocity , reduced stride length , and 
 decreased arm swing , are a common behavior in older adults when facing serious balance 
 threats such as when turning1 . humans 
 generally swing their arms in opposition to their legs during walking , which increases gait 
 velocity and facilitates balance of the angular momentum generated in the lower body1 , 2 . however , little is known regarding the 
 effect of arm movement during turning in females of very advanced age . therefore , the 
 purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of carrying a bag on gait 
 velocity and trunk acceleration during semicircular turning gait in females of very advanced 
 age . ten community - dwelling females of very advanced age ( 80.9  5.5years [ mean  sd ] ) with a 
 mean height of 149.4  3.7  cm and a mean body weight of 50.8  6.9 kg who could walk 
 independently were recruited . all the participants were older than 75  years , could walk 
 independently without any assistive device , and scored more than 24 in the korean version of 
 the mini - mental state examination . none of the participants had neurological diseases , major 
 orthopedic diseases , or significant visual , auditory , or vestibular impairments . ethics 
 approval was obtained from the inje university ethics committee for human investigations , 
 and written informed consent was obtained from all the participants . gait velocity and trunk 
 acceleration during semicircular turning gait with and without a hand - held bag were measured 
 with atri - axial accelerometer ( dimensions : 35  35  13  mm ; mass:13.7  g , fit dot life , 
 suwon , kor ) . the range of the sensors was selected to be  2 gin the acquisition software 
 ( fitmeter manager 2 , ver . the walking velocity was calculated by dividing 
 the distance by the time required to complete the locomotor task . trunk acceleration in the 
 anterior - posterior , medial - lateral , and vertical directions was calculated using root mean 
 squares of different directions3 . the 
 semicircular turning maneuver consisted of walking 3  m in a straight line , following a 
 2.36-m semicircular curve with a radius of 0.75 m , and walking 3  m back in a straight line . an accelerometer was fixed with double - sided adhesive tape over the l3 spinous process . the 
 participants holding a bag ( dimensions : 350  270  20 mm ; mass : 0.2  kg ) by the hand straps 
 in the right hand were asked to walk along the above curve barefoot at a self - determined 
 speed . the data were analyzed using the spss statistical package ( version 18.0 for windows , 
 chicago , il , usa ) . differences in gait velocity and trunk acceleration were analyzed using 
 the paired t - test for comparisons between tasks . there were no differences in directional trunk accelerations between the tasks 
 ( p>0.05).the anterior - posterior and medial - lateral acceleration amplitudes were 1033.5  
 218.9  cm / s and 919.0  205.5  cm / s , respectively , without the bag 
 and 952.6  116.4  cm / s and 850.0  201.8  cm / s with the bag . the gait 
 velocity during semicircular turning gait with the bag ( 67.2  13.6  cm / s ) was significantly 
 greater than that without the bag ( 59.0  8.8  cm / s , p<0.05 ) . our findings indicate that the trunk control during semicircular turning gait was more 
 stable with the bag than without the bag in females of very advanced age . trunk control is 
 important for stable walking in the elderly , and trunk and arm movements are coordinated 
 with each other1 . during semicircular 
 turning , the outer leg produces greater plantar - flexor forces to propel the body forward 
 because it must travel a greater distance . in addition , maintaining balance becomes more 
 challenging when the center of mass moves in the medial - lateral direction during turning 
 owing to the asymmetric movement of the inner and outer limbs4 . however , in order to maintain the coordination between the 
 movements of the upper and lower limbs , the arm swing on one side has to be limited while 
 the arm swing amplitude on the opposite side has to be increased5 . in addition , according to nakakubo et al . , intentionally 
 increasing arm swing improves trunk stability in the medial - lateral direction and increases 
 walking velocity in the elderly1 . the 
 results of the present study suggest that additional armload could be considered during gait 
 training in females of very advanced age . the effects of various turning angles and load 
 weights on trunk acceleration amplitude should be investigated in further studies .
[ purpose ] gait velocity and trunk acceleration during semicircular turning gait with and 
 without carrying a hand - held bag were compared in females of very advanced age . 
 [ subjects 
 and methods ] ten female volunteers of very advanced age who could walk independently were 
 recruited for this study . gait velocity and trunk acceleration 
 were measured using an 
 accelerometer during semicircular turning gait with and without carrying a hand - held bag . 
 [ results ] gait velocity during semicircular turning gait was greater with the bag than 
 without the bag . 
 [ conclusions ] trunk stability during semicircular turning gait was higher 
 when the subjects carried a bag . additional arm load could be considered during gait 
 training in females of very advanced age .