Abstract
Participation in various physical activities requires successful postural control in response to the changes in position of our body. It is important to assess postural control for early detection of falls and foot injuries. Walking at various speeds and for various durations is essential in daily physical activities. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the changes in complexity of the center of pressure (COP) during walking at different speeds and for different durations. In this study, a total of 12 participants were recruited for walking at two speeds (slow at 3 km/h and moderate at 6 km/h) for two durations (10 and 20 min). An insole-type plantar pressure measurement system was used to measure and calculate COP as participants walked on a treadmill. Multiscale entropy (MSE) was used to quantify the complexity of COP. Our results showed that the complexity of COP significantly decreased (p < 0.05) after 20 min of walking (complexity index, CI = −3.51) compared to 10 min of walking (CI = −3.20) while walking at 3 km/h, but not at 6 km/h. Our results also showed that the complexity index of COP indicated a significant difference (p < 0.05) between walking at speeds of 3 km/h (CI = −3.2) and 6 km/h (CI = −3.6) at the walking duration of 10 min, but not at 20 min. This study demonstrated an interaction between walking speeds and walking durations on the complexity of COP.
Highlights
Postural control is a complex process based on continuous and interactive information between our sensorimotor system and the environment [1,2,3,4]
Our results showed that the complexity index of center of pressure (COP) indicated a significant difference (p < 0.05) between walking at speeds of 3 km/h (CI = −3.2) and 6 km/h (CI = −3.6) at the walking duration of 10 min, but not at
COP is the point of the ground reaction force (GRF) vector acting on the plantar foot, which starts from heel
Summary
Postural control is a complex process based on continuous and interactive information between our sensorimotor system and the environment [1,2,3,4]. People with sensorimotor impairments due to disease or aging lose their postural control, which results in falls and foot injury. It is important for clinicians to assess the postural control function changes in at-risk populations to prevent fall-related injuries. Various measures have been used to assess postural control functions, including center of mass, center of gravity, and center of pressure (COP) [1,2,3,4]. Among these measures, the analysis of COP has been widely used for quantitative assessments of postural control due to its easy measurement. COP is the point of the ground reaction force (GRF) vector acting on the plantar foot, which starts from heel
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