GRASPING THE HANDRAILS DURING TREADMILL WALKING DOES NOT ALTER SAGITTAL PLANE KINEMATICS OF WALKING

Objective: To determine whether grasping the handrails during treadmil l walking affects sagittal plane kinematic parameters selected to desc ribe walking style. Design: Crossover trial. Setting: A university mot ion analysis laboratory. Participants: A convenience sample comprised of 15 apparently healthy college-age volunteers. Intervention: After b eing acclimatized to treadmill walking, subjects were videotaped while completing two treadmill walking bouts. Each bout was 10 minutes in d uration and was conducted at a walking speed of 1.5m/sec. Subjects wer e instructed to grasp the handrails in one bout (GRASP) but to refrain from using the handrails in the other (FREE). Both bouts were conduct ed in a single session and were separated by a 10-minute rest period. The order in which subjects completed the bouts was randomized. Main O utcome Measures: Five successive strides occurring during the last 30 seconds of each bout were digitized. The coordinate data were numerica lly filtered and the following parameters derived: stride length, perc entage of stride cycle spent in double-support, and the hip, knee, and ankle angles at heel-strike and toe-off. The results for the five str ides in each bout were averaged and the average value was used in the statistical analysis. The FREE and GRASP conditions were compared with t tests for dependent samples (p less than or equal to .05). Results: There were no differences between the FREE and GRASP conditions for a ny of the parameters assessed. Conclusions: Subjects may grasp the tre admill handrails without affecting sagittal plane kinematic parameters of walking style. (C) 1997 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilita tion.