Walking Aid Use And Arthritis

Abstract

Gait cycle percentage spent in active propulsion is significantly greater in those without a history of falling in the past year than those with a history of falling in the past year. PURPOSE: This study examined the impact of walking aid use and diagnosed arthritis on gait cycle percentage spent in active propulsion in fallers and non-fallers. METHODS: A total of 250 subjects over the age of 60 years (age; 71.1 ± 7.4 yrs, height; 1418.5 ± 21.2 cm, mass; 57.1 ± 6.3 kg) were recruited from the southwest United States, completed a brief medical history and gait analysis. Following the collection of these data, subjects were assigned to one of two groups based on having fallen (F; n = 90) or having not fallen (NF; n = 160) in the past year. Independent t-tests were conducted to explore group differences (walking aid, arthritis; α = 0.05) in time spent in active propulsion. For these analyses the F and NF groups were analyzed separately with percentage spent in active propulsion as the dependent variable and both walking aid use and self-reported diagnosis of arthritis were the independent variables. RESULTS: For walking aid use, NF not utilizing a walking aid had a significantly higher (p = 0.033) gait cycle percentage spent in active propulsion (56.9% ± 2.6) than NF who use a walking aid (41.4% ± 6.4). There was also a significant difference (p = 0.029) in gait cycle percentage spent in active propulsion for NF without a diagnosis of arthritis (60.6% ± 3.4) compared to NF with a diagnosis of arthritis (49.9% ± 3.4). In contrast, there were no differences among the fallers in gait cycle percentage spent in active propulsion based on walking aid use (48.3% ± 2.8 for no walking aid; 43.1% ± 6.4 for walking aid, p = 0.46) or arthritis diagnosis (52.2% ± 3.8 for no arthritis diagnosis; 43.7% ± 3.4 for arthritis diagnosis, p = 0.09). CONCLUSIONS: Specific to those with a history of falls, use of a walking aid or history of arthritis does not impact gait cycle percentage spent in active propulsion. However, for individuals with no history of falling in the last year, both use of walking aid and diagnosis of arthritis significantly reduces percent of the gait cycle spent in active propulsion which has been previously shown to differ between people with and without a history of falls.