Citation

Leban B, Cimolin V, Porta M, Arippa F, Pilloni G, Galli M, Pau M. J. Mot. Behav. 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Department of Mechanical, Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Cagliari , Cagliari , Italy .

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/00222895.2019.1680949

PMID

31650909

Abstract

In this study, we acquired and processed trunk accelerations during level walking in 85 children aged 8-13 years to calculate spatio-temporal parameters and Harmonic Ratio (HR), which is a metrics representative of gait smoothness and step-to-step symmetry. The results show that while spatio-temporal parameters remain unchanged once normalized considering individuals' anthropometry, significantly higher values of HR for both the antero-posterior and vertical directions were found in participants aged 12-13 with respect to those of 8-9. This indicates an improvement of gait symmetry, which suggests that the gait maturation process is still ongoing for the age ranges tested here.

Language: en

Keywords

Harmonic Ratio (HR); children; gait maturation; smoothness; symmetry