Identifying the Effects of Age and Speed on Whole-Body Gait Symmetry by Using a Single Wearable Sensor

Abstract

Studies on gait symmetry in healthy population have mainly been focused on small range of age categories, neglecting Teenagers (13–18 years old) and Middle-Aged persons (51–60 years old). Moreover, age-related effects on gait symmetry were found only when the symmetry evaluation was based on whole-body acceleration than on spatiotemporal parameters of the gait cycle. Here, we provide a more comprehensive analysis of this issue, using a Symmetry Index (SI) based on whole-body acceleration recorded on individuals aged 6 to 84 years old. Participants wore a single inertial sensor placed on the lower back and walked for 10 m at comfortable, slow and fast speeds. The SI was computed using the coefficient of correlation of whole-body acceleration measured at right and left gait cycles. Young Adults (19–35 years old) and Adults (36–50 years old) showed stable SI over the three speed conditions, while Children (6–12 years old), Teenagers (13–18 years old), Middle-Aged persons and Elderly (61–70 and 71–84 years old) exhibited lower SI values when walking at fast speed. Overall, this study confirms that whole-body gait symmetry is lower in Children and in Elderly persons over 60 years of age, showing, for the first time, that asymmetries appear also during teenage period and in Middle-Aged persons (51–60 years old).

Synchronized Cyclograms to Assess Inter-Limb Symmetry during Gait in Post-Stroke Patients

“…Quantitative evaluation of gait symmetry is usually performed according to the differences observed in a subset of spatio-temporal gait parameters commonly analyzed in stroke survivors (e.g., step length, single and double support duration) between the affected and non-affected limb [5,[9][10][11][12][13][14] whilst other kinematic/kinetic variables are considered less frequently [5,12,13,[15][16][17][18][19][20]. However, even though the above-mentioned approach is quite easy to implement, it presents some limitations such as the inability to identify the temporal location of asymmetry or to detect occasional events during the gait cycle and a low sensitivity and lack of standardization due to the arbitrary choice of equation and variables [5,12,15,21,22].…”