Affiliations: Physical Therapy Program, Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Care Sciences, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Sujay S. Galen, Physical Therapy Program, Wayne State University, 259 Mack Avenue, Detroit, MI 48201, USA. Tel.: +1 313 577 5531; Fax: +1 313 577 8685; E-mail:sujay.galen@wayne.edu
Abstract: BACKGROUND: The wireless gait assessment tool (Wi-GAT) measures
have been shown to have good to excellent concurrent validity with preferred
walking speeds, however, the validity of the Wi-GAT measures at slow and
fast walking speeds is unknown.
OBJECTIVE: To establish validity of the Wi-GAT spatio-temporal gait
measures at slow, fast, and preferred walking speeds.
METHODS: Twenty two healthy adult volunteers, with a mean age of
25.7 (± 5.3) participated in this study. The spatio-temporal gait
variables of each participant were concurrently recorded using the GAITrite
and the Wi-GAT system, while the participants performed 3 trials for each
walking speed in a randomized order. Intraclass correlation analyses were
performed to establish the agreement between the measures recorded by the
GAITrite and Wi-GAT systems.
RESULTS: Walking speed measured both by the Wi-GAT and the GAITrite
systems showed excellent agreement for preferred (ICC = 0.979 p< 0.001), slow
(ICC = 0.989 p< 0.001) and fast (ICC = 0.967 p< 0.001) walking speeds. Most
gait parameters recorded at slow walking speed showed good (ICC > 0.70) to
excellent (ICC > 0.85) agreement.
CONCLUSIONS: Gait parameters recorded by the Wi-GAT system showed
fair to excellent validity for preferred and slow walking speeds.
