Abstract
Walking while using a mobile phone has been shown to affect the walking dynamics of young adults. However, this has only been investigated using treadmill walking at a fixed walking speed. In this study, the dynamics of over ground walking were investigated using lower trunk acceleration measured over 12 consecutive trials, following differing walking speed and mobile phone use instructions. Higher walking speed significantly increased the proportion of acceleration along the vertical measurement axis, while decreasing the proportion of acceleration along the anteroposterior axis (p < 0.001). Moreover, higher walking speed also resulted in increased sample entropy along all measurement axes (p < 0.05). When walking while texting, the maximum Lyapunov exponent increased along the anteroposterior and vertical measurement axes (p < 0.05), while sample entropy decreased significantly along the vertical axis (p < 0.001). Walking speed and mobile phone use both affect the walking dynamics of young adults. Walking while texting appears to produce a reduction in local dynamic stability and an increase in regularity, however, caution is required when interpreting the extent of this task effect, since walking speed also affected walking dynamics.
Highlights
Walking while using a mobile phone has been shown to affect the walking dynamics of young adults
Dynamical systems theory (DST) states that nonlinear analysis methods the investigation of dynamic behaviour, which can be defined as the patterns of change in a system state over time[24]
The dynamics of over ground walking among young, healthy adults were investigated
Summary
Walking while using a mobile phone has been shown to affect the walking dynamics of young adults. The dynamics of over ground walking were investigated using lower trunk acceleration measured over 12 consecutive trials, following differing walking speed and mobile phone use instructions. To date just a few studies have investigated walking dynamics under this dual task c ondition[16,17,18,19] These studies provide relevant and valuable information, but their approach to measuring the dynamics of walking are limited by two methodological aspects. The current study presents an alternative protocol using over ground walking and self-determined non-fixed walking speeds to more accurately reflect the dynamics of natural walking This protocol alone is not enough if traditional linear methods are subsequently used for analysis. The root mean square ratio (RMSratio) was used to provide an indication of the effect of walking speed instruction and dual task conditions on the variability of acceleration along each measurement axis. Further the MaxLyE is used to estimate the ability to respond to small local perturbations (local dynamic stability) while walking[36], introduced by the noise interfering with movement execution
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