The effect of walking speed on quality of gait in older adults.
BACKGROUND
Gait quality characteristics can contribute to the identification of individuals at risk of falls. Since older adults with high fall risk tend to walk slower than older adults with a lower fall risk, walking speed may underlie differences in gait quality characteristics.


RESEARCH QUESTION
How does walking speed affect gait quality characteristics in older people?


METHODS
We investigated the effect of walking speed on gait characteristics in 11 older adults (aged 69.6 ± 4.1 years). Trunk accelerations (Dynaport MoveMonitor) were recorded during 5 min of treadmill walking at four different speeds. From these trunk accelerations we calculated step frequency, root mean square, harmonic ratio, index of harmonicity, sample entropy and logarithmic divergence rate per stride.


RESULTS
Our results showed that all gait characteristics were affected by walking speed, except for sample entropy in antero-posterior (AP) direction. An increase in walking speed resulted in a higher step frequency, higher standard deviation, more symmetric gait, more smooth vertical (VT) accelerations, less smooth accelerations in medio-lateral (ML) and AP directions, less regular dynamics in ML direction, more regular dynamics in VT direction, and a more stable gait pattern overall.


SIGNIFICANCE
These findings suggest that, within a range of 0.5-1.4 m/s, a lower walking speed results in a lower gait quality, which may underlie differences in gait quality between older fallers and non-fallers.
['Huijben|B|B|', 'van Schooten|K S|KS|', 'van Dieën|J H|JH|', 'Pijnappels|M|M|']
D000054:Acceleration D061725:Accelerometry D000368:Aged D019277:Entropy D005080:Exercise Test D005260:Female D005684:Gait D000077107:Gait Analysis D006801:Humans D008297:Male D060726:Torso D016138:Walking D000072797:Walking Speed
Walking speed Gait Accelerometry Balance Elderly