Gait symmetry and velocity differ in their relationship to age

Abstract

Measurement of gait is essential for identifying underlying deficits contributing to gait dysfunction, guiding clinical decisions and measuring rehabilitation outcomes. Velocity is commonly used to measure gait, however, its interpretation in patient populations is complicated by the confound of age. Gait symmetry may be an additional and valuable measure since it may not feature the same age-related changes as velocity. The purpose of this study was to determine if gait symmetry is related to age. METHODS Spatiotemporal gait parameters were recorded for 172 individuals with stroke and 81 healthy adults walking across a pressure sensitive mat at their preferred speed. Swing time, stance time and step length symmetry ratios were calculated. The relationship of age to velocity and symmetry was examined using Pearson correlations. RESULTS There was a significant negative association between velocity and age in the healthy group (r=−0.57, p<0.01). There were no significant relationships between age and any of the three symmetry ratios for either the stroke or healthy groups. CONCLUSIONS The main finding of the current study is that gait symmetry ratios are not significantly associated with age in either a healthy or a post-stroke group. Gait symmetry ratios may therefore, allow the clinician and the researcher to make judgments about the effects of disease (such as stroke) on the control of an individual’s gait without the confound of age.

A Review of Selected Factors Affecting Gait Symmetry

“…Contrary to study results of nonsignificant effect over a continuous age range [4,24,48], some studies with significant effects [36,37] compared two different age groups. Meanwhile, Himann et al showed that gait function remains unchanged until the age of 60, which then varies greatly [58].…”

“…However, studies have reported different results. Although several studies have shown that age is not effective on gait symmetry [4,6,24,48], recent studies have reported otherwise, which seems to differ in the age distribution of subjects [20,36,37].…”

“…In this case, gait asymmetry is considered an important factor to evaluate the functional inefficiency of the patients with the anomaly. Thereby, achieving gait symmetry or reducing gait asymmetry in people with any disorder before and after rehabilitation has been used to assess the effectiveness of the treatment model [2][3][4][5][6]. In this context, the results of several studies have also shown the effectiveness of rehabilitation exercises [3,30,39,47].…”

“…The use of symmetry indices is also one of the most commonly used methods for measuring and interpreting it [11]. In this regard, several studies have compared commonly used symmetry indices and showed that none is preferred in terms of the ability to distinguish healthy subjects from people with anomaly or disease, although the symmetry ratio has been proposed because of its simplicity [4,51]. …”

Questioning Classic Patient Classification Techniques in Gait Rehabilitation: Insights from Wearable Haptic Technology

“…The mean age was 58.5 (±9.47) years. The relatively wide age range does not play a significant role in gait symmetry ratios [29]. The time since the onset of stroke varied from 6-43 years.…”