Gait alterations during walking with partial body weight supported on a treadmill and over the ground

Ana Maria F. Barela,Douglas V. Russo-Junior,Melissa L. Celestino,Gabriela L. Gama,José A. Barela

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-44652-y

Ana Maria F. Barela, Douglas V. Russo-Junior + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-44652-y

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Abstract

Understanding the changes induced by body weight support (BWS) systems when non-disabled adults walk can help develop appropriate rehabilitation protocols. The purpose of this study was to investigate spatial-temporal gait alterations during walking with BWS on a treadmill and over the ground. Fourteen non-disabled young adults (including seven women) walked over the ground and on a treadmill with 0%, 10%, and 20% of BWS at 80% of their self-selected comfortable walking speed (baseline). The stride length and speed, step length, and stance and double-limb support durations were calculated and compared among the different conditions. The non-disabled adults modulated their spatial-temporal gait parameters according to the surface and percentage of BWS. They walked with shorter and slower strides and shorter steps and spent more time in contact with the support surface as they walked on the treadmill than as they did over the ground. Walking on the treadmill promoted less variability and a higher rate of change than did walking over the ground. Both the surface and amount of BWS should be taken into consideration when using BWS systems for (re)learning and/or reestablishing gait.

Highlights

Partial body weight support (BWS) systems have been widely used as an alternative therapeutic strategy for gait training of different populations, including individuals with stroke[1,2,3,4,5], Parkinson’s disease[6,7], spinal cord injury[8] and children with cerebral palsy[9,10,11]
These results show that the use of a BWS system either on a treadmill or over the ground can modify the gait pattern of individuals with no gait impairment
We investigated whether the support surface on which the BWS system is employed and the amount of body weight unloading would modify gait patterns

Summary

Introduction

Partial body weight support (BWS) systems have been widely used as an alternative therapeutic strategy for gait training of different populations, including individuals with stroke[1,2,3,4,5], Parkinson’s disease[6,7], spinal cord injury[8] and children with cerebral palsy[9,10,11]. As young adults walk over the ground with BWS, the cadence, duration of double-limb support, maximum flexion and extension of the knee, maximum flexion of the hip, and maximum dorsiflexion of the ankle decrease, while the duration of single-limb support increases[13,14,15] These results show that the use of a BWS system either on a treadmill or over the ground can modify the gait pattern of individuals with no gait impairment. It is important to investigate the different aspects of gait patterns in non-disabled young adults walking with a body weight unloading of less than 30% of BWS on both treadmills and over the ground while controlling their walking speed to establish and implement better gait training protocols for those with gait impairment. We investigated the amount of change between walking at a self-selected comfortable speed along a pathway and walking with different amounts of body weight unloading on the treadmill and over the ground

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