Changes In Spatiotemporal Gait Characteristics Following Treadmill Or Overground Walking In Older Adults

Abstract

Walking has been used extensively as a mode of physical activity for older adults to improve functional ability in everyday situations; however, no studies have investigated the effects of treadmill walking as a surrogate for overground walking when the goal is to improve overground gait and physical function. PURPOSE To assess changes in various spatiotemporal parameters of gait in older adults (9 males, 11 females, mean age =74 ± 4 yrs) following six weeks (3d/wk, 60 min.max.) of treadmill (TM) or overground (OG) walking. METHODS Walking velocity, stride rate and stride length were measured using an instrumented carpet for OG trials, or calculated using the relationship treadmill velocity = stride length × stride rate for TM trials. During the training, subjects were encouraged to walk at an intensity equal to an RPE of 13. Training mode comparisons were made using two- way ANOVAs with repeated measures. Data reported significant at p<.05. RESULTS OG walking velocity increased significantly following training for both groups at the preferred speed (TM = 2.3 cm/s, OG = 7 cm/s) and at an RPE of 13 (TM = 6.8 cm/s and OG = 9.5 cm/s). OG stride rate did not change significantly following training. OG stride length increased significantly for both groups at the preferred speed (TM = 1.7 cm, OG = 5.6 cm) and at an RPE of 13 (TM =5.3 cm, OG = 6.9 cm). On the TM, the preferred walking velocity increased significantly (TM = 30.5 cm/s, OG = 19.8 cm/s) and, at an RPE of 13, walking velocity increased significantly (TM = 36.0 cm/s, OG = 31.6 cm/s) for both groups. On the treadmill, both the preferred stride rate (TM = .134 strides/s, OG = .056 strides/s) and RPE stride rate increased (TM = .14 strides/s, OG = .12 strides/s) for both groups. On the TM, both the preferred stride length (TM = 25.8 cm, OG = 18.2 cm) and the stride length at an RPE of 13 increased for both groups (TM = 25.6 cm, OG =19.5 cm). CONCLUSION For this limited set of spatiotemporal variables, the data suggest that 6 weeks of TM walking significantly improves gait characteristics in older adults. The changes were very similar to those for OG walking. Therefore, TM walking is a reasonable alternative to OG walking when environmental or space considerations prohibit OG walking.