Association between Gait Variability and Gait-Ability Decline in Elderly Women with Subthreshold Insomnia Stage

Abstract

This study investigates the gait characteristics of elderly women, aged more than 65 years, with subthreshold insomnia stage at various walking speeds. A total of 392 participants (insomnia: 202 and controls: 190) wearing shoe-type inertial measurement units completed walking tests on a treadmill for a duration of 1 min at slower, preferred, and faster speeds. The insomnia group indicated lower pace parameters (range of Cohen’s d: 0.283–0.499) and the single support phase (Cohen’s d: 0.237), greater gait variability (range of Cohen’s d: 0.217–0.506), and bilateral coordination (range of Cohen’s d: 0.254–0.319), compared with their age-matched controls; the coefficient of variance (CV) of the stance phase at the faster speed condition was a crucial variable for distinguishing between insomnia and control groups. In addition, the insomnia group demonstrated insufficient gait adaptation at the slower and preferred speeds, as indicated by the CVs of the stride length, stride time, and step time. In particular, participants with worsened insomnia symptoms or sleep problems showed that these worse gait patterns may increase the potential risk of falling in elderly women. Thus, elderly women with subthreshold insomnia stage need to improve their sleep quality to enhance their physical functions.

Sarcopenia as a Mediator of the Effect of a Gerontogymnastics Program on Cardiorespiratory Fitness of Overweight and Obese Older Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…The EWGSOP suggests the gait speed test as an easy and valid method for assessing physical performance [ 3 , 15 , 16 ]. Gait speed has been performed to evaluate various health-related factors such as physical functions, health status [ 17 , 18 , 19 ], and quality of life [ 20 ]. A well-known meta-analysis of 2888 older people set the minimum health threshold for gait speed at ≥ 0.8 m/s [ 21 ].…”

Low composite functional movement screen score associated with decline of gait stability in young adults

“…Similar results that conducting the treadmill walking test with slower, preferred, and faster speed conditions reported the control group (healthy elderly female) exhibited significant increasing and decreasing trends for all gait variables, whereas the experimental group (sustained subthreshold insomnia stage) exhibited no significant differences in the CVs of stride length, stride time, and step time between the slower and preferred speeds. They suggested these patterns may be related to the symptoms of declining gait stability by reduced gait adaptation ability ( Lee et al, 2020a ). However, the high TFMS group in the female case showed no significant differences as in the all participant and the male participant cases in the CV of the double support phase and GA variables (preferred vs. faster).…”

“…In addition, all participants performed overground walking tests on a straight 10 m walkway before the treadmill test to calculate their self-preferred walking speed (distance/walking duration). Slower (80% of preferred speed) and faster (120% of preferred speed) speeds were calculated relative to the preferred speed ( Noh et al, 2020 ; Lee et al, 2020a ; Lee et al, 2020b ). For instance, if the measured preferred speed was 1.0 m/s, then the slower and faster speeds were 0.8 m/s and 1.2 m/s, respectively ( Fig.…”

“…Recently, an inertial measurement unit (IMU) system for gait analysis has exhibited validity and reliability in healthy individuals ( Joo, Kim & Park, 2015 ; Kanzler et al, 2015 ; Mariani et al, 2010 ) and patients ( Trojaniello et al, 2014 ; Trojaniello et al, 2015 ; Lee et al, 2018 ); thus, numerous researchers have suggested this alternative approach for gait analysis ( Joo, Kim & Park, 2015 ; Kanzler et al, 2015 ; Mariani et al, 2010 ; Trojaniello et al, 2014 ; Lee et al, 2018 ; Cole et al, 2014 ). Several studies that used the IMU system have reported a significant decline in gait ability based on quantitative speed conditions (e.g., ±20% of the preferred walking speed of an individual), and gait tasks at these speed conditions have been validated in healthy young adults ( Han et al, 2019 ), older adults ( Noh et al, 2020 ; Lee et al, 2020a ), and patients with Parkinson’s disease ( Lee et al, 2020b ). Thus, gait tasks at slower, faster, and self-preferred speeds using the IMU system may demonstrate specific characteristics in young adults, based on a TFMS cut-off score of 14 out of 21.The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between gait ability and fundamental movement patterns in young adults using a TFMS with a cut-off score of 14.…”

Fuzzy Protoform for Hyperactive Behaviour Detection Based on Commercial Devices

“…There is a new trend of more reliable diagnostic methods based on the collection signals by wearable devices that integrate Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) or Optical Heart Rate (OHR) sensors. These devices generate data of acceleration, rotation, and heart rate to obtain key indicators in multiple domains such as Parkinson’s disease [ 11 , 12 , 13 ], fitness coaching [ 14 ], insomnia stage [ 15 ], fall detection [ 16 ], lumbosacral gait [ 17 ], or activity recognition [ 18 ].…”