Stride parameters in healthy young and old women - Measurement variabilityon a simple walkway

Gait analysis in disabled and old probands may be considerably altered by a pplied devices and the artificial surrounding of a gait laboratory. To circ umvent distractions fi om such factors, we evaluated the gait pattern of he althy women on a simple walkway and supplemented the analysis by reliabilit y measurements. In order to consider age-related changes of gait parameters in health, healthy young (YHW) and old women (OHW) were investigated. Five gait parameters were assessed during 10 independent runs of each individua l on the walkway. Multiple-regression analysis revealed a significant relat ionship between age and gait velocity, stride length, and the coefficient o f variation (CV) of step width. Standard errors of mean were uniformly low across ail parameters and groups, except for some increase in step width (O HW) and cadence (YHW). Across groups, CV was small for stride length, large r for foot angle, and largest for step width. An acceptably low within-sess ion variability of the stride parameters was found.