Department of Human Movement Studies, University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic.
Department of Teaching Corporal Expression, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
PLoS One. 2023 May 11;18(5):e0285558. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0285558. eCollection 2023.
Independent walking is an important milestone in a child's development. The maturation of central nervous system, changes in body proportions, spatiotemporal parameters of gait and their variability change are dependent on age. The first aim of this study was to compare non-normalized and normalized spatiotemporal parameters and their variability in children. The second aim was to determine which spatiotemporal parameters are most affected by aging. Data from 64 typically developing children (age: 2.0-6.9 years), who walked at a self-selected speed along a 10m walkway, were collected with a motion capture system. Spatiotemporal parameters were normalized based on leg length. The main effect of the non-normalized walking speed revealed a moderate effect size (ES = 0.72) comparing 2- and 3-years-old, a large effect size comparing 2- and 6-years-old (ES = 1.77), and a large ES comparing 3- and 6-years-old (ES = 1.22). The normalized stride width parameter showed a statistically significant difference with large effect size between 2 vs 3 (ES = 1.00), 2 vs 6 (ES = 3.17), and 3 vs 6 (ES = 1.96). A statistically significant decrease in intra-individual gait variability with increasing age was observed in all parameters except for stride width. The variability of stride width may serve as a parameter in 2-year-olds to assess deviations from typically developing children. The assessment of effect size could be a useful indicator for clinical practice.
独立行走是儿童发育的重要里程碑。中枢神经系统的成熟、身体比例的变化、步态的时空参数及其可变性都取决于年龄。本研究的主要目的是比较儿童非标准化和标准化的时空参数及其可变性。第二个目的是确定哪些时空参数受老化影响最大。数据来自 64 名发育正常的儿童（年龄：2.0-6.9 岁），他们以自己选择的速度沿着 10 米的走道行走，使用运动捕捉系统进行数据采集。时空参数根据腿长进行标准化。非标准化行走速度的主要效应显示出中等大小的效应量（ES = 0.72），比较 2 岁和 3 岁，比较 2 岁和 6 岁的效应量较大（ES = 1.77），比较 3 岁和 6 岁的效应量较大（ES = 1.22）。标准化步幅宽度参数在 2 岁与 3 岁（ES = 1.00）、2 岁与 6 岁（ES = 3.17）和 3 岁与 6 岁（ES = 1.96）之间存在统计学显著差异，且效应量较大。除步幅宽度外，所有参数的个体内步态可变性都随年龄的增加而显著降低。步幅宽度的可变性可能成为评估 2 岁儿童与正常发育儿童差异的参数。效应量的评估可能是临床实践的有用指标。
