Senior Researcher Institute of Rehabilitation, Jamk University of Applied Sciences Jyväskylä, Keski-Suomi, Finland
Research Objectives: To investigate how spatiotemporal gait parameters differ between indoor treadmill and outdoor walking in older adults.
Design: Observational cross-sectional study.
Setting: General community.
Participants: A volunteer sample of 40 persons were recruited via senior organizations and the university of third age. Inclusion criteria were community-dwelling, aged 70 years or over, able to walk 1 km without assistive devices, able to communicate, and living in the local area. Exclusion criteria were use of walking aid, severe sensory deficit (vision, hearing), memory impairment (MMSE≤23) or neurological condition.
Interventions: Not applicable
Main Outcome Measures: Indoors participants walked, after habituation, for three minutes on a level motor driven treadmill and gait was recorded with 16-camera system (Vicon 3D). Outdoors participants walked for 6 minutes back and forth on a 70-meter trail of a level sports track and gait was recorded with highspeed cameras (GoPro). First minute of walking was analyzed from both, excluding turns from outdoor walking. Usual walking speed was measured with a 10-meter walking test in a laboratory. Walking speed was self-selected in each condition. Cadence (step/min), step length (cm), and step duration (s) were digitalized from videos. Variability of the gait (within-person differences in steps) was calculated as coefficient of variation (standard deviation/mean x 100%) of step length and step duration (%).
Results: Twenty-six community-dwelling older adults (mean age of 76 (SD 5.2) years, 65% female) had complete data set and were included in the analyses. Indoor walking speed was on 10-meter test 1.39 (SD 0.16), on treadmill 1.08 (SD 0.22) and outdoors 1.52 (SD 0.19) m/s. Treadmill walking resulted in a slower gait speed (p < 0.001) with shorter steps (p < 0.001) and less variation (p < 0.001) compared to outdoor walking.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that older adults walk differently in a laboratory environment compared to an outdoor environment. The walking in different environments should be further studied in older adults, to better understand and prevent the deterioration of mobility in everyday life.
Author(s) Disclosures: No conflicts of interest
Learning Objectives:
To describe how spatiotemporal gait parameters differ between indoor treadmill and outdoor walking in older adults.
To discuss the need for valid methods to evaluate movement of older adult soutside the laboratory in real-life settings.
To acknowledge the "Gait features in different environments contributing to participation in outdoor activities in old age" (GaitAge) project.
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