Department of Kinesiology and Health, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA.
Atlanta Neuroscience Institute, Atlanta, GA 30327, USA.
Clin Biomech (Bristol). 2024 Aug;118:106316. doi: 10.1016/j.clinbiomech.2024.106316. Epub 2024 Jul 20.
Falls are a serious health threat for people with Parkinson's disease. Dynamic gait stability has been associated with fall risk. Developing effective fall prevention interventions requires a sound understanding of how Parkinson's disease affects dynamic gait stability. This study compared dynamic gait stability within the Feasible Stability Region framework between people with and without Parkinson's disease during level walking at a self-selected speed.
Twenty adults with Parkinson's disease and twenty age- and gender-matched healthy individuals were recruited. Dynamic gait stability at two gait instants: touchdown and liftoff, was assessed as the primary outcome measurement. Spatiotemporal gait parameters, including stance phase duration, step length, gait speed, and cadence were determined as explanatory variables.
People with Parkinson's disease walked more slowly (p < 0.001) with a shorter step (p = 0.05), and prolonged stance phase (p = 0.04) than their healthy peers with moderate to large effect sizes. Dynamic gait stability did not show any group-associated differences (p > 0.36).
Despite the different gait parameters between groups, people with Parkinson's disease exhibited similar dynamic gait stability to their healthy counterparts. To compensate for the potential dynamic gait stability deficit resulting from slow gait speed, individuals with Parkinson's disease adopted a short step length to shift the center of mass motion state closer to the Feasible Stability Region. Our findings could provide insight into the impact of Parkinson's disease on the control of dynamic gait stability.
跌倒对帕金森病患者是一个严重的健康威胁。动态步态稳定性与跌倒风险相关。开发有效的跌倒预防干预措施需要深入了解帕金森病如何影响动态步态稳定性。本研究在自我选择速度的水平行走过程中，比较了帕金森病患者和无帕金森病患者在可行稳定区域框架内的动态步态稳定性。
招募了 20 名帕金森病患者和 20 名年龄和性别匹配的健康个体。将两个步态时刻（触地和离地）的动态步态稳定性作为主要的结果测量。时空步态参数，包括站立相持续时间、步长、步行速度和步频作为解释变量。
帕金森病患者的步行速度较慢（p<0.001），步长较短（p=0.05），站立相持续时间延长（p=0.04），与健康同龄人相比具有中到大的效应量。动态步态稳定性没有表现出任何与组相关的差异（p>0.36）。
尽管两组之间的步态参数不同，但帕金森病患者的动态步态稳定性与健康对照组相似。为了补偿由于步行速度较慢而导致的潜在动态步态稳定性缺陷，帕金森病患者采用了较短的步长，将质心运动状态更接近可行稳定区域。我们的研究结果可以深入了解帕金森病对动态步态稳定性控制的影响。
