Gait Characteristics In Persons With COPD Who Have Obesity

Abstract

Persons with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) experience a greater fall risk than healthy individuals of the same age. Obesity has been associated to an even greater fall risk in persons with COPD. Gait abnormalities such as an increasing step width has also been associated with severity of COPD. Recent research has shown that a high intensity intervention decreases step width in persons with COPD. However, no research has been done to investigate possible difference in gait pattern between persons with COPD who have obesity and those who have a healthy body mass index (BMI). PURPOSE: To investigate differences in gait pattern between people with COPD who have obesity and those who have a healthy BMI. METHODS: 9 persons with COPD who have a BMI in the Obese category (OBMI) and 5 persons with COPD who have a BMI in the healthy category (HBMI) participated. Participants completed 5 trials of walking forward at a comfortable pace on pressure-sensor walkway. Velocity, cadence, step width, stride length, and stance % were measured as average of 5 trials and compared between groups using a 2-tailed independent samples t-tests or a Mann-Whitney U test depending on normality. Hedges’ effect size was also calculated. RESULTS: OBMI group walked with wider steps showing a trend towards statistical significance (OBMI: 15.7±4.9cm; HBMI: 9.9±2.5cm; p=0.053). No other variables were significantly different between the groups. Effect sizes ranged from trivial (0.05 for cadence) to large (1.08 for step width). CONCLUSION: A wider step gait in OBMI may be related to increased fear of falling. Research with greater sample size must be done to further investigate the how obesity affects gait patterns in persons with COPD.