A Temporal and Distance Gait Studies of Clients with Different Types of Cerebral Palsy

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe and compare selected temporal-distance gait measures, i.e., the velocity, cadence, stride length to lower-extremity length ratio, and stride length differential, among clients with spastic hemiplegia, spastic diplegia and athetoid quadriplegia. Fifteen subjects in each of the aforementioned three types of cerebral palsy were recruited in this study. All subjects were able to walk independently for at least 10m with or without assistive device prior to participating in this study. A clinically approachable, reliable and objective footprint method was employed. The results of this study revealed significant differences (p＜.05) in three of the four selected TD gait measures, including velocity, cadence and stride length to lower- extremity length ratio, among subjects with three different types of cerebral palsy. But, all subjects showed similar stride length differential. The findings indicated the importance of the influence of the distribution of the disability with the types of abnormal posture tone on the performance during ambulation, except for the effect on the symmetry of gait patterns. Most cerebral palsied subjects in this study had fairly symmetrical stride lengths (＜3 cm). Due to the limitation of the footprint method, further studies using other instruments to clarify the effects of specific types of disability on symmetry' of temporal factors during a gait cycle are recommended. The results of this study corresponds to most qualitative description of gait deviation which pointed out differences among the aforementioned three types of cerebral palsy.