Quantitative gait analysis — comparison of rheumatoid arthritic and non-arthritic subjects

Abstract

This study quantified differences in the gait parameters of velocity and stride length at three different self selected speeds between 113 subjects with rheumatoid arthritis and 104 normal controls stratified for age and gender. Significant differences were found between the well-matched groups of females 50-64 and over 65 years of age at all three speeds for both gait parameters. Females younger than 50 years of age, however, differed from their controls only at normal and fast velocities. The gait of males appeared to be less affected by the disease as only males over 65 years of age differed significantly from their controls and then only at the fast self selected speed. These data provide a base from which to judge the efficacy of therapeutic intervention in the arthritic population.

Gait patterns in subjects with rheumatoid arthritis cannot be explained by reduced speed alone

“…Subjects with RA walked with shorter steps than controls when compared at self-selected speed. This result is similar to those reported in other studies of subjects with RA [5,6,15], but not until we normalized for speed could we interpret to what degree this difference could be explained by a concurrent difference in walking speed. In accordance with Kettelkamp et al [26] we found no significant group differences for cadence at preferred speed.…”

“…Reduced speed is a typical feature observed among individuals with joint diseases. It has also been reported that spatiotemporal variables such as step length, cadence, stance phase, and step width may change with speed [14,15]. However, to distinguish differences in spatiotemporal variables due to gait abnormalities from differences due to change in walking speed, gait data should be controlled for the effect of speed [13,24].…”

Off‐the‐shelf orthopedic footwear for people with rheumatoid arthritis

“…It was decided to use this 2-stage research design for the following reasons: power analysis using normative data collected at this center on subjects with RA (7) revealed that a sample of at least 30 subjects was necessary to ensure that the study had sufficient power (80-90%) to demonstrate a clinically relevant difference, if it exists, for velocity, stride length, pain and physical function; we wished to have the research design strength of a controlled trial but found it difficult to refuse the free-of-charge footwear to subjects allocated to the control group; it was recognized that there was a possibility of "randomization failure" with such a small sample (11).…”

“…A previous study at this center (7) demonstrated that subjects with RA walk with a slower velocity and cadence and a shorter stride length than well-matched nonarthritic controls at 3 different self-selected speeds (slow, normal, and fast). The study also showed that this difference was consistently greatest at the fast selfselected speed and that the gait of males with RA appeared to be less affected by the disease than the gait of age-matched females with RA.…”

Certainty and Critical Speed for Decision Making in Tests of Pedestrian Automatic Emergency Braking Systems

“…In general, pedestrians walk faster at crosswalk compared to on sidewalk and walkway. Reference [29] and [30] demonstrated that the average pedestrian deceleration was about 1.5 m/s 2 and it did not depend much on the walking speed, with a maximum value of 2.5 m/s 2 . The stride frequency is about 0.9 Hz according to [31].…”