The relationships between patient-reported outcome, quality of life, and gait characteristics using a wearable foot inertial-sensor assessment in patients with foot and ankle conditions

Abstract

Category: Gait analysis Introduction/Purpose: The purpose of this study was to report the relationships between validated patient-reported outcome, health-related quality of life, and gait characteristics using a wearable foot inertial-sensor assessment in patients with foot-ankle conditions. In addition, the inter-metrics correlations were analyzed to determine the relationships between each spatiotemporal or gait parameter. Methods: Fifty-three patients with foot-ankle conditions (38 female/15 male, aged 21–75 years) were collected for this study. Clinical assessments, including evaluations with validated patient-reported outcomes using the visual analogue scale foot and ankle (VAS-FA) score, health-related quality of life using the validated Short Form-36 (SF-36)9, and gait characteristics assessment using a wearable foot inertial-sensor device, were performed and recorded in each patient. Results: Negative correlation between physical component summary (PCS) and maximal cadence only showed a significant value at Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r) = –0.308, P = 0.025. Positive correlations (r) were found between mean walking speed and mean cadence (r = 0.776, P < 0.001) and between maximal walking speed and mean step length (r = 0.498, P < 0.001). Negative correlations (r) were found between mean cadence and mean step length (r = –0.491, P < 0.001) and between maximal cadence and mean step length (r = –0.355, P = 0.009). Conclusion: Regarding relationships among several spatiotemporal parameters and patient-reported outcome measures, cadence is the only parameter that was significantly negatively related with PCS in health-related quality of life. Based on inter-metrics relationships, increased cadence might be used to maintain walking speed as a compensatory mechanism in patients with foot- ankle conditions.