Gait Analysis and Application to Dysequilibrium Rehabilitation :

Abstract

Rehabilitation programs for patients with dizziness or dysequilibrium have been established empirically, so conventional rehabilitation programs have no theoretical support.In order to improve rehabilitation programs in the treatment of dizziness or dysequilibrium caused by various diseases, we studied an approach which is specifically selected to the cause of dizziness or dysequilibrium. A gait test was employed in our study, since walking is one of the fundamental activities of daily life. On a large floor with a dynamometer we tested the free gait of 125 healthy adults between 18 and 86 years of age. Multiple-step sampling was taken to find a tridirectional reaction force wave and a locus of bidirectional point of application force in order to analyze two factors; time-distance factor (velocity, stride, step width and cadence) and gaiting figure factor (symmetry, reappearance, smoothness and sway).The results indicated that the measured values of each parameter were inappropriate as a standard value due to great individual differences in eight parameters and statistically significant differences in sex and age. Nevertheless, this approach might be applicable to monitoring the process of gait development.Next we studied the correlation of these eight parameters, and found that certain combinations showed an absolute correlation, and other combinations showed no correlation regardless of sex or age. In particular, one parameter, cadence, correlated well with the other seven parameters and fulfilled the requirements of a standard.Therefore, cadence, which is deliberately controllable, was selected as the best parameter for practical use in rehabilitation programs.