Normalized Speed, Not Age, Characterizes Ground Reaction Force Patterns in 5-to 12-Year-Old Children Walking at Self-Selected Speeds

Stansfield, Ben; Hillman, Susan J.; Hazlewood, M. Elizabeth; Lawson, Alastair A.; Mann, A.M.; Loudon, I.R.; Robb, James

doi:10.1097/01241398-200105000-00026

Cited by 56 publications

(60 citation statements)

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“…The altered force values for the older adults can be attributed to the fact that they walked at a much slower speed in all test trials. These results are consistent with findings of other authors [23][24][25] . In the preliminary testing for the current study, the older adults could walk at a speed comparable to the young adults in the single-task trials, but they significantly decreased their walking speed in the dual-task trials.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

A Comparison between Young and Old Adults in Their Ability to Rapidly Sidestep during Gait when Attention Is Divided

2008

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Background: The incidence of falls among older adults is high and the risk factors are often complex in nature. Considerable research has been done in the area of age-related changes of balance in an attempt to better understand the increased risk of falls. Studies of cognitive changes, however, suggest that the elderly are less able to divide their attention between two or more activities. This inability to divide attention could explain the increased risks of falls in the elderly. Objective: To investigate the effects of divided attention, age and prior knowledge of movement path, on kinetic measures and the position of the sacral marker relative to the center of pressure (COP) when individuals perform a rapid sidestep during walking. Methods: 32 young and 32 old adults participated in this study. Subjects walked and took a sidestep without interrupting forward progression. An arithmetic task was performed during half of the walking trials with the sidestep direction preplanned or unknown. Peak lateral ground reaction force, mean distance between COP and sacrum, walking velocity, performance speed and accuracy of the cognitive task were measured. Results: Both groups significantly decreased their mediolateral distance between the sacral marker and the COP in the dual-task trials (p = 0.04). Both groups significantly decreased their walking speed in the dual-task trials (p < 0.0001). Prior knowledge of the sidestep direction significantly affected the peak lateral ground reaction force and the sacral marker to COP distance but the differences were age-dependent. Young adults had a larger value in the unknown condition than in the preplanned condition (p < 0.0001). For the cognitive task, both groups decreased their performance speed (p < 0.0001) but maintained their performance accuracy as compared to the baseline data (p > 0.05). Conclusions: Our results revealed that old adults tended to be conservative, when facing the dual-task trials or unknown test condition. The fact that the older adults in the current study did not perform similarly to the younger adults suggests that they might have a fear of fall when facing a challenging balance task.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

A Comparison between Young and Old Adults in Their Ability to Rapidly Sidestep during Gait when Attention Is Divided

2008

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“…Children aged 8 to 9 years without impairment walk at an average speed of 71.4m/min, and 9-to 10-year-olds walk at 81.6m/min. 31 In comparison, as Table II shows, the children in the present study walked very slowly over even a short distance, and they walked only relatively short distances over 10 minutes. Contemporary clinical practice suggests that taskspecific repetitive practice of walking is required to improve walking performance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Partial body‐weight‐supported treadmill training can improve walking in children with cerebral palsy: a clinical controlled trial

Dodd

Foley

2007

Develop Med Child Neuro

161

116

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This matched-pairs, clinical controlled trial evaluated the effects of a school-based, partial body-weight-supported treadmill training (PBWSTT) programme, conducted twice a week for 6 weeks, on the walking speed and endurance of children with cerebral palsy (CP). Pairs of children (10 males, four females; mean age 8y 10mo [SD 2y 6mo], range 5-14y) matched for sex, age, type of CP (athetoid quadriplegia, n=6; spastic quadriplegia, n=6; spastic diplegia, n=2), and Gross Motor Function Classification System level (10 at Level IV, four at Level III) were allocated to the experimental or control group. Compared with the control group, the seven treadmill-training participants increased their self-selected walking speed over 10 metres (Mann-Whitney U=9.00, z=-1.98, p=0.048; mean difference 4.21m/min). A trend was also found for increased distance walked over ground in 10 minutes (t[12]=1.88, p=0.083; mean difference 19.81m). A relatively short PBWSTT programme can improve the walking speed of children with CP and moderate to severe disabilities. Walking endurance might also improve in some children. Treadmill training seems to be a useful gait training option for children with CP, and it seems feasible to conduct such a programme within a school environment.The development of efficient and independent walking is an important therapeutic goal for many children with cerebral palsy (CP). As a result of impairments such as spasticity, muscle weakness, and postural instability, as much as 90% of children with CP have difficulty in walking. 1,2 Reduced walking speed 3,4 and endurance 5,6 are two of the main functional problems, particularly in children with more severe disabilities. 7 Current theories of motor learning suggest that task-specific repetitive practice can improve activities such as walking in people with neurological disorders such as CP. 8,9 Consequently, there has been a growing interest in the effects of treadmill training programmes, particularly with partial body-weight support, for people with neurological disorders.In people without CP, partial body-weight-supported treadmill training (PBWSTT) has been shown to have a range of benefits. For example, a recent review 10 found a trend for people with stroke to increase their over-ground walking speed and walking endurance after participation in a PBW-STT programme. In people with incomplete spinal cord injury, PBWSTT has been shown to increase walking speed 11,12 and endurance, 12 while decreasing oxygen costs, 11 whereas in people with Parkinson's disease, PBWSTT has been found to increase walking speed and stride length. 13 Despite increasing clinical interest, few published articles have reported the effects of PBWSTT on children with CP. [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] One article 14 documented the effects of a 12-week programme on 10 children (mean age 11y 6mo, range 6-18y; three had spastic diplegia, four had spastic quadriplegia, and three had spastic quadriplegia and ataxia) using a single-group, pre-post research design. In an attempt to control...

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“…Beets et al (2005) also reported that the error increased as the treadmill walking speed decreased, but the error of SPW in children was within 1%. In their study, the mean value of SPW was about 77 m/min in 5-to 11-year-old subjects, which was similar to the mean walking speed (about 77.4 m/min, nϭ151) of 6th-grade children (11-12 years of age) (Stansfield et al, 2001). Japanese children are generally shorter than European and American children, and their legs are also shorter.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 54%

Accuracy of Spring-levered and Piezo-electric Pedometers in Primary School Japanese Children

Nakae

Oshima

Ishii

2008

J Physiol Anthropol

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Pedometers are used in many studies because physical activities can be simply assessed using them. In addition to the spring-levered type, piezo-electric pedometers have recently been used. However, their accuracy in children has not been investigated in previous studies. In this study, we investigated the accuracy of spring-levered pedometer and piezo-electric pedometer step counts in comparison with handtallied step counts with children during self-paced walking. First to 6th-grade primary school children (394 subjects; 201 boys and 193 girls) walked with pedometers on an outdoor 50-m course, and the measured values were compared with actual steps at 3 speeds: normal, slow, and fast paces. The counts obtained by the spring-levered pedometer were significantly lower than the actual steps in most grades at all walking paces. In the normal-and fast-pace walking, the counts by spring-levered pedometer were significantly lower than the actual steps in all grades excluding the 5th grade. Moreover, the spring-levered pedometer underestimated by 25% or more in all grades at slow pace. In contrast, the percent error of the counts by the piezo-electric pedometers at normal pace were mostly within Ϯ3%, confirming their high accuracy. Based on these findings, spring-levered pedometers are not appropriate for children, whereas piezo-electric pedometers are useful for investigation of the physical activity of children.

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Normalized Speed, Not Age, Characterizes Ground Reaction Force Patterns in 5-to 12-Year-Old Children Walking at Self-Selected Speeds

Cited by 56 publications

References 10 publications

A Comparison between Young and Old Adults in Their Ability to Rapidly Sidestep during Gait when Attention Is Divided

A Comparison between Young and Old Adults in Their Ability to Rapidly Sidestep during Gait when Attention Is Divided

Partial body‐weight‐supported treadmill training can improve walking in children with cerebral palsy: a clinical controlled trial

Accuracy of Spring-levered and Piezo-electric Pedometers in Primary School Japanese Children

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