Concurrent validity of SMTEC ® footswitches system for the measurement of temporal gait parameters

Abstract

The GAITRite ® system is a validated portable gait analysis system that allows simple objective gait measurements. The limited length of the active area of the GAITRite ® system may be a limitation in obtaining reliable measures of stride-to-stride variability. In contrast, the SMTEC ® footswitches system provides a continuous measurement of temporal step parameters for a long distance and a long period (around 24 h). The aim of the study was to examine the concurrent validity of the SMTEC ® footswitches system with the GAITRite ® system for the measurement of temporal steps parameters. Step, stride, swing and stance time were simultaneously recorded using SMTEC ® and GAITRite ® systems while walking at normal, slow and fast self-selected walking speed among 13 healthy young adults. The level of agreement between both systems was high as for the stride time with intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) between 0.95 and 0.99 ( P < 0.001) and repeatability coefficients (RC) between 1.1% and 1.5% of mean values, whereas the lowest level of agreement was shown at fast self-selected walking speed and for stance time (ICC = 0.52 with P < 0.001 and RC = 4.9%). Furthermore, the measurement of individual footstep data was excellent with an agreement ranging between −0.04 and 0.04 s (Pitman's test of difference in variance: r = −0.009, P = 0.772). The present results suggest that the SMTEC ® footswitches system provides a valid and reliable measurement of temporal gait parameters in healthy young adults.