Article

Physical activity is important for general health.
For an individual with
amputation to sustain physical activity, certain functional capacity might be
needed. Gait variability is related to the incidence of falls.
This study
explored the relationship between physical activity and a few common performance
measures (six-minute walk test, step length variability, step width variability,
and comfortable walking speed) in individuals with unilateral lower-limb amputation. Twenty individuals completed the study (age: 50+/-11yrs). Twelve of
them had transtibial amputation, seven had transfemoral amputation, and one had
through-knee amputation. Gait data was collected by the GaitRite instrumented
walkway while participants performed a 3-min comfortable walking trial followed
by a six-minute walk test. Physical activity was indicated by the mean of 7-day
step counts via a pedometer. Gait variability was calculated by the coefficient
of variation. Pearson correlation analysis was conducted between physical
activity level and the 4 performance measures. Significance level was set at
0.05. Physical activity correlates strongly to comfortable walking speed
(r=0.76), six-minute walk distance (r=0.67), and correlates fairly to step width
variability (r=0.44). On the contrary, physical activity is inversely related to
step length variability of the prosthetic leg (r=-0.46) and of the sound leg
(r=-0.47). Having better functional capacity and lateral stability might enable
an individual with lower-limb amputation to engage in a higher physical activity
level, or vise versa. However, our conclusions are only preliminary as limited by
the small sample size.
CI - Copyright (c) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS