Article

Many measures of gait variability have been reported, but the degree to which
such measures are associated and thus represent a common construct is
inconclusive. The purpose of this paper is to establish construct validity of
commonly used spatio-temporal footfall variability and trunk variability measures
taking into account the effect of measurement error. Twenty-three older
individuals, aged 80+/-5 years performed four repeated walks at preferred speed,
0.97+/-0.16m/s. Gait data were obtained by an electronic walkway and by trunk
accelerometry. Of initially 13 variability measures, five satisfied a reliability
criterion of ICC> or =0.80 and were included in a subsequent construct validity
analysis. Of these, step length variability and step time variability did not
correlate significantly, while step length variability correlated closely with
anteroposterior interstep trunk variability, and step time variability with
vertical interstep trunk variability. Mediolateral interstep trunk variability
did not correlate significantly with any of the other measures. This finding
supports the notion that this measure may represent still a different aspect of
variability. Different gait variability measures representing different
constructs should be included in gait analysis to enhance our understanding of
variability in gait.
CI - Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS