Spatio-temporal gait parameters obtained from foot-worn inertial sensors are reliable in healthy adults in single- and dual-task conditions

J Soulard,J Vaillant,N Vuillerme,R Balaguier

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-88794-4

Abstract

Inertial measurement units (IMUs) are increasingly popular and may be usable in clinical routine to assess gait. However, assessing their intra-session reliability is crucial and has not been tested with foot-worn sensors in healthy participants. The aim of this study was to assess the intra-session reliability of foot-worn IMUs for measuring gait parameters in healthy adults. Twenty healthy participants were enrolled in the study and performed the 10-m walk test in single- and dual-task ('carrying a full cup of water') conditions, three trials per condition. IMUs were used to assess spatiotemporal gait parameters, gait symmetry parameters (symmetry index (SI) and symmetry ratio (SR)), and dual task effects parameters. The relative and the absolute reliability were calculated for each gait parameter. Results showed that spatiotemporal gait parameters measured with foot-worn inertial sensors were reliable; symmetry gait parameters relative reliability was low, and SR showed better absolute reliability than SI; dual task effects were poorly reliable, and taking the mean of the second and the third trials was the most reliable. Foot-worn IMUs are reliable to assess spatiotemporal and symmetry ratio gait parameters but symmetry index and DTE gait parameters reliabilities were low and need to be interpreted with cautious by clinicians and researchers.

Highlights

Inertial measurement units (IMUs) are increasingly popular and may be usable in clinical routine to assess gait
The objectives are 1) to evaluate the reliability, standard error of measurement (SEM) and minimal detectable change (MDC) values of spatiotemporal gait parameters and symmetry gait parameters obtained, (2) to evaluate the reliability, SEM and MDC values of dual task effects obtained from gait parameters, and (3) to determine the number of trials required to ensure reliable gait assessment
The objectives were 1) to evaluate the reliability, standard error of measurement (SEM) and minimal detectable change (MDC) values of spatiotemporal gait parameters and symmetry gait parameters obtained, (2) to evaluate the reliability, SEM and MDC values of dual task effects obtained from gait parameters, and (3) to determine the number of trials required to ensure reliable gait assessment

Summary

Introduction

Inertial measurement units (IMUs) are increasingly popular and may be usable in clinical routine to assess gait Assessing their intra-session reliability is crucial and has not been tested with foot-worn sensors in healthy participants. A very recent meta-analysis questioning validity and reliability of wearable inertial sensors in healthy adults during walking[3] have reported seven published studies that have used foot-worn sensors to assess spatiotemporal gait p arameters[10,13,14,15,16,17,18], among which two of them (28.6%) used Physilog I MUs10,17. Since the concurrent validity between Physilog foot-worn inertial sensors and associated gait analysis package and optical motion capture systems has already been e stablished[17,19], the present study was designed to solely focus on intra-session reliability of Physilog foot-worn inertial sensors for measuring gait parameters in healthy adults. The use of IMUs during the performance of this clinical test allows to further compute relevant data such as spatiotemporal gait parameters and their symmetry

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion