Elsevier

Gait & Posture

Volume 41, Issue 1, January 2015, Pages 307-312
Gait & Posture

Short Communication
Reproducibility of spatio-temporal and dynamic parameters in various, daily occurring, turning conditions

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaitpost.2014.09.007Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Examination of locomotion of three typical, daily occurring, curves.

  • Ground contact times of feet are reproducible on subsequent days.

  • Vertical and horizontal ground reaction force is stable between test sessions.

  • Left directed turns are mostly initiated by the right foot.

  • Right directed turns are initiated in the same amount with right and left foot.

Abstract

Objective

This study aims to assess the test–retest reproducibility of specific spatio-temporal (foot placement, foot contact time) and dynamic (resultant horizontal and vertical ground reaction force) gait parameters of three different, everyday occurring, turning conditions. The subjects were tested at two subsequent days. Out of this setting the purpose of this study is to clarify, if turning locomotion is stable when performed at different test occurrences.

Methods

Eight subjects completed three different daily occurring turning conditions along turns with a given walking velocity of 5 km/h (±10%). Subjects had to complete the turns three times clockwise and counter clockwise. The measurements were recorded with a 3D motion analysis system (Vicon®) and two force sensitive platforms (AMTI®), connected to the motion analysis system.

Results

The analysis yields for most of the parameters and turning conditions ICCs from good (r = 0.72; p = .06) to high (r = 0.96; p < .01) magnitude for the measured spatio-temporal and dynamic parameters.

Conclusions

Based on our findings it can be assumed that locomotion strategies, related to the measured gait parameters of common daily turning tasks, are stable and reproducible.

Introduction

Clinical gait analysis is often used to detect influences of musculoskeletal disorders or diseases on human gait [1]. In order to identify and assess gait abnormalities it is necessary to determine previously healthy people's gait characteristics. Therefore, it is mandatory to examine the reproducibility of the human gait in different testing sessions [2]. An understanding of potentially emerging differences is required to distinguish gait abnormalities from physiologic variabilities [2]. Along with straight ahead movement tasks, daily life also necessitates to cope with various turning conditions [3]. Turning or curve walking locomotion is a substantial field in gait research [4], [5], [6], [7], [8]. However, previous studies focused on locomotion strategies while turning or walking a curve, such as the ankle rotation during foot placement [4], [5] or the relation between head tilt, head rotation, and trunk rotation to initiate a turn [5], [6], [7], [8]. All these studies report a higher complexity of gait during turning conditions compared to straight ahead walking. Hence, an inclusion of turning tasks into gait analysis provides the opportunity for a more comprehensive gait assessment. Because of the higher complexity of turning tasks, such an analysis could possibly reveal movement abnormalities even if straight ahead walking tasks do not show any abnormalities. So far, there is no study on the reproducibility of turning gait tasks in any setting. Therefore, we investigated the gait reproducibility during turning tasks of young, healthy subjects by assessing spatio-temporal and dynamic parameters in a test–retest-design.

Section snippets

Subjects

Eight healthy male subjects [1.85 ± 0.03 m, 79.4 ± 7.9 kg, 24.5 ± 2.2 y] participated in our study. Written informed consent was obtained after approval of the test-protocol by the Institutional Review Board. Six of eight subjects were right-handed and declared the left leg as dominant for postural and force specific tasks. Handedness was measured referring to Oldfield [9] and footedness referring to Chapman [10].

Assessment

Spatio-temporal and ground reaction force (GRF) parameters during turning gait were

Results

Analysis of the ground contact times revealed ICCs higher than r = 0.82 (p  .02) for eleven of twelve tested conditions. In one condition (90 right 1st foot) a lower ICC (r = 0.64; p = .10) was found. Mean ICC of the ground contact time across all conditions is high (r = 0.90) (Table 1). The analysis of the vertical GRF revealed ICCs of r  0.78 (p  .04) in ten of twelve conditions. In two conditions (180 right 2nd foot; 90 right 2nd foot) lower ICCs were found. The mean ICC of the vertical GRF was high as

Discussion

To our best knowledge, there is no study on the reproducibility of turning locomotion in different turning conditions. Hence, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the reproducibility of turning locomotion via specific spatio-temporal and dynamic gait parameters during different, daily occurring turns in a test–retest design. Our results showed mean ICCs for the ground contact time, the horizontal and the vertical GRF on a high level (r  0.76) over all conditions. Additionally, the turning

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Hanns-Seidel-Foundation e.V. in funding the first author for PhD scholarship.
Conflict of interest statement

All authors disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence this/our work.

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1

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2

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