Characteristics of Gait Variability in the Elderly While Walking on a Treadmill with Gait Speed Variation

Bohyun Kim, Changhong Youm, Hwayoung Park, Myeounggon Lee and Byungjoo Noh
Additional contact information
Bohyun Kim: Department of Health Sciences, The Graduate School of Dong-A University, Busan 49315, Korea
Changhong Youm: Department of Health Sciences, The Graduate School of Dong-A University, Busan 49315, Korea
Hwayoung Park: Department of Health Sciences, The Graduate School of Dong-A University, Busan 49315, Korea
Myeounggon Lee: Department of Health Sciences, The Graduate School of Dong-A University, Busan 49315, Korea
Byungjoo Noh: Department of Kinesiology, Jeju National University, Jeju 63243, Korea

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 9, 1-13

Abstract: Gait variability (GV), which is a variable for predicting mobility issues and risk of falling in elderly people, is defined as the fluctuation in spatiotemporal characteristics from one step to the next in walking. The goal of this study was to analyze the age- and sex-related spatiotemporal variability characteristics of elderly individuals using the measurements taken while walking on a treadmill for one minute based on gait speed variation. Gait testing was conducted on 225 healthy male and female individuals aged 60–79 years who were able to walk and move on their own and, specifically, walk on a treadmill for one minute. The test was performed at three speed conditions—the preferred speed of the participant, 20% higher than the preferred speed, and 20% lower than the preferred speed—and data were recorded using shoe-type data loggers. The different age groups and sex could be distinguished using the coefficient of variance (CV) of the double support phase and gait asymmetry (GA) at the preferred speed, and CVs of stride length and stance phase at faster speed. The results indicated that the values of GV obtained from the test were used to determine the variation in gait characteristics of elderly individuals.

Keywords: gait variability; inertial measurement unit; gait stability; spatiotemporal characteristics; elderly individuals; coefficient of variance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/9/4704/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/9/4704/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:9:p:4704-:d:545374

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().