IS THE OBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT OF CEREBRAL-PALSY GAIT REPRODUCIBLE

It is important to determine the reproducibility of objective measures of gait in children with motor disorders in order that the effect of interventions to improve gait can be monitored. Data for walking veloc ity and vertical ground reaction force expressed as a percentage of bo dy weight were collected from 15 normal children and 11 with spastic c erebral palsy. Five recordings were obtained for each foot of each chi ld on 3 consecutive days, and calculations of variability made for eac h set of five recordings. Children with cerebral palsy had slower walk ing velocities and greater ground reaction force values, and both thes e parameters had low intraindividual variation for both normal childre n and those with cerebral palsy (coefficients of variation <12.5%). Th is good reproducibility applied to intrasubject and intraday variabili ty; no learning effect was seen over 3 days' recordings. There was no significant difference in variability whether the first three recordin gs or all five were used. These techniques of gait measurement in chil dren have good reproducibility and a potential role in the objective a ssessment of medical and surgical interventions.