Department of Kinesiology, 30 Eastman Lane, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA; Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, 1540 E Alcazar St, CHP 155, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA.
School of Kinesiology, University of Michigan, 401 Washtenaw Ave, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA; Department of Kinesiology and Applied Physiology, University of Delaware, 100 Discovery Blvd, Newark, DE, 19713, USA.
Gait Posture. 2020 Mar;77:171-174. doi: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2020.01.007. Epub 2020 Feb 1.
Walking speed influences a variety of typical outcome measures in gait analysis. Many researchers use a participant's preferred walking speed (PWS) during gait analysis with a goal of trying to capture how a participant would typically walk. However, the best practices for estimating PWS and the impact of laboratory size and walk distance are still unclear.
Is measured PWS consistent across different distances and between two laboratory sites?
Participants walked overground at a "comfortable speed" for six different conditions with either dynamic (4, 6, 10, and 400 m) or static (4 and 10 m) starts and stops at two different data collection sites. Repeated measures ANOVA with Bonferroni corrections were used to test for differences between conditions and sites.
Participants walked significantly faster in the 4, 6, and 10 m dynamic conditions than in the 400 m condition. On average, participants walked slower in the static trials than the dynamic trials of the same distance. There was a significant interaction of lab and condition and so results were examined within each lab. Across both labs, we found that the 4 and 10 m dynamic conditions were not different than the 6 m dynamic condition at both sites, while other tests did not provide consistent results at both sites.
We recommend researchers use a 6 m distance with acceleration and deceleration zones to reliably test for PWS across different laboratories. Given some of the differences found between conditions that varied by site, we also emphasize the need to report the test environment and methods used to estimate PWS in all future studies so that the methods can be replicated between studies.
步行速度会影响步态分析中的各种典型结果指标。许多研究人员在步态分析中使用参与者的惯用步行速度（PWS），目的是尝试捕捉参与者的典型步行方式。然而，估计 PWS 的最佳实践以及实验室大小和步行距离的影响仍不清楚。
不同距离和两个实验室地点之间的测量 PWS 是否一致？
参与者以“舒适速度”在六个不同条件下在地面行走，这些条件具有动态（4、6、10 和 400m）或静态（4 和 10m）的起点和终点，在两个不同的数据采集地点进行。使用重复测量方差分析和 Bonferroni 校正来测试条件和地点之间的差异。
参与者在 4、6 和 10m 动态条件下的行走速度明显快于 400m 条件。平均而言，参与者在静态试验中的行走速度比相同距离的动态试验慢。实验室和条件之间存在显著的交互作用，因此在每个实验室中检查结果。在两个实验室中，我们发现，在两个地点，4 和 10m 动态条件与 6m 动态条件没有差异，而其他测试在两个地点均未提供一致的结果。
我们建议研究人员使用 6m 距离，带有加速和减速区，以便在不同的实验室中可靠地测试 PWS。鉴于在不同地点的条件之间发现了一些差异，我们还强调需要在所有未来的研究中报告测试环境和用于估计 PWS 的方法，以便在研究之间复制这些方法。
