Reliability and relations of step parameters, variability and stability dufing walking in healthy elderly.

Vlijm, I. (Irma) (2011) Reliability and relations of step parameters, variability and stability dufing walking in healthy elderly. thesis, Human Movement Sciences.

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Abstract

Background: Walking performance of the elderly can be described by step parameters, such as gait speed and step length, and by the variability of these measures. A clinical gait measure is the TimedUp- and-Go (TUG). The dynamic nature of walking can be better described by for instance the measures quantifying the rate of the variability in stride-to-stride fluctuations indexed by the a of the Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA), the local stability indexed by the maximum Lyapunov Exponent (MLE) and the regularity indexed by the Sample Entropy (SEn). However it is suggested that these parameters are sensitive to discriminate between conditions, not much is known about the reliability of these parameters derived from time series during walking. The aim of the present study was to investigate the reliability and sensitivity of dynamic gait parameters, and to study the relations between step and dynamic parameters and the TUG. Methods: 20 healthy elderly performed twice a 30-meter walk test at three different speed conditions (normal, fast and slow) and a dual task condition (auditory Stroop task), and the TUG in single and (arithmetic) dual task condition. Trunk accelerations were measured with an accelerometer. In addition to step parameters such as gait speed, step length, the Phase Variability Index (PVI), variability and mean of stride time, dynamic gait parameters such as the a of DFA, the MLE and SEn were calculated and investigated on reliability between days with the Intra Class Correlation. Relations between the parameters were calculated with Spearman's rho. Results: Most step parameters are sensitive and reliable gait parameters. The DFA is reliable and sensitive enough to discriminate between conditions, the MLE is sensitive and reliable for the average of several trials, the SEn is not sensitive and only reliable for the average trials in the anterior-posterior direction. There were several moderate correlations between the parameters and the TUG that could be explained, but most parameters were low correlated. Conclusions: The dynamic gait parameters were reliable over the average of three trials. Furthermore, most parameters were sensitive to discriminate between normal and slow speed conditions. Low correlations between step parameters, dynamic gait parameters and the TUG indicate that they represent different features of the walking pattern.

Item Type:	Thesis (Thesis)
Supervisor name:	Lamoth, Dr. C.J. and Zijlstra, Dr. W.
Faculty:	Medical Sciences
Date Deposited:	25 Jun 2020 11:07
Last Modified:	25 Jun 2020 11:07
URI:	https://umcg.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/2726

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