EFFECT OF AGE, GENDER, AND WALKWAY LENGTH ON ACCELEROMETRY-BASED GAIT PARAMETERS FOR HEALTHY ADULT SUBJECTS

Accelerometry is now a well-established method for monitoring human body movements, and is increasingly being used for gait analysis under nonlaboratory conditions because of its low-cost and unobtrusive nature. In order to encourage its use in the clinical setting such as for assessing functional declines due to aging or disease, an extensive database of healthy gait is needed. This paper presents reference data for 245 normal Japanese adults (126 men and 119 women aged 4086 years) obtained from indoor walk tests by using a trunk-mounted acceleration sensor. Seven gait parameters were extracted from the acceleration data measured at fast, normal, and slow gait for 5 m and 10 m walkways. The effects of age on cadence, speed, and step length were consistent with those observed in previous studies. Scaled speed and acceleration were closely correlated with each other, and exhibited similar gender-and age-associated behavior, indicating that they could be used interchangeably in gait analysis. A comparison of these parameters between different walkways revealed a significant effect of walkway length. Our parameters may provide a useful reference database for the clinical analysis of not only healthy gait but also impaired gait for the 10m walkway as well as for the shorter 5m walkway.