Citation

Dadashi F, Mariani B, Rochat S, Büla CJ, Santos-Eggimann B, Aminian K. Sensors (Basel) 2013; 14(1): 443-457.

Affiliation

Laboratory of Movement Analysis and Measurement, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne 1015, Switzerland. (kamiar.aminian@epfl.ch).

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/s140100443

PMID

24379049

Abstract

In order to distinguish dysfunctional gait, clinicians require a measure of reference gait parameters for each population. This study provided normative values for widely used parameters in more than 1,400 able-bodied adults over the age of 65. We also measured the foot clearance parameters (i.e., height of the foot above ground during swing phase) that are crucial to understand the complex relationship between gait and falls as well as obstacle negotiation strategies. We used a shoe-worn inertial sensor on each foot and previously validated algorithms to extract the gait parameters during 20 m walking trials in a corridor at a self-selected pace. We investigated the difference of the gait parameters between male and female participants by considering the effect of age and height factors. Besides; we examined the inter-relation of the clearance parameters with the gait speed. The sample size and breadth of gait parameters provided in this study offer a unique reference resource for the researchers.

Language: en