Helbostad Jorunn L, Moe-Nilssen Rolf
Section of Physiotherapy Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
Gait Posture. 2003 Oct;18(2):27-36. doi: 10.1016/s0966-6362(02)00197-2.
The aim of this paper was to investigate the effect of speed dependency on lateral gait parameters. In 36 healthy elderly (mean age=72.5 years, S.D.=3.2 years), walking at four different self-administered speeds, mediolateral trunk acceleration and step width (SW), but not step-width variability (SWV), were found to have quadratic relations to gait speed. Normalizing for speed by curvilinear interpolation, and controlling for subject characteristics, disclosed smaller SW (adjusted R2=0.41, P<0.001), but larger SWV (adjusted R2=0.26, P=0.01) with increasing age in multiple regression models. These relations were camouflaged at preferred speed.
