Full length article6MWT on a new self-paced treadmill system compared with overground
Section snippets
Background
The growing number of ageing adults is associated with an increase in the incidence of chronic conditions that may affect functional capacity. Functional tests are now widely used by clinicians and other health professionals to measure exercise capacity. The results are an indicator of a patient’s condition and mobility-related function. Analysis of spatiotemporal gait parameters (gait speed, distance, step time, step length, cadence) is becoming crucial in predicting fall risk or to quantify
Subjects
Twelve healthy young adults (8 women, 4 men; age: 23.5 ± 3.4 years; height: 173.2 cm ± 10 cm; weight: 68.2 kg ± 11.4 kg) volunteered to participate in the study after providing informed written consent and GDPR consent. One participant enrolled in the first session only. They were free of any known neurological, musculoskeletal, or other systemic disorders that would affect gait or functional mobility. The study was approved by the local ethics committee and conduced in accordance with the
Results
A comparison between the SP TM and OG modalities for the 6MWT is shown in [Fig. 3] with two computed distances for OG: the standard method and the average-speed-based estimation. In the OG condition, participants walked 664.8 m ± 48.9 m with the standard method using floor markers and 721.3 m ± 56.2 m with the walking speed method. For the SP TM 6MWT, they covered 729.4 m ± 40.8 m in the first session and 727.4 m ± 49.9 m in the second session. A comparison between the SP TM day one and day two
Discussion
The main purpose of this study was to examine if the results of a 6MWT on an SP TM were similar to an OG 6MWT. Our results showed a significant difference for the distance between modalities with a 9% greater distance on the SP TM 6MWT compared to the OG 6MWT. However, neither the spatiotemporal parameters nor the average-speed-based distance estimation demonstrated a significant difference to their counterparts between 6MWT modalities. Moreover, the SP TM algorithm showed high reliability of
Conclusion
In conclusion, the distance walked on an SP TM presents a significant difference compared with that measured in an OG 6MWT. This difference highlights that the norm values cannot be compared with measurements in this modality and establishes the necessity of new norm values for SP TM 6MWT. However, a comparison of spatiotemporal parameters highlighted no significant difference between modalities. These results indicate that, after a familiarisation period, SP TM walking does not notably affect
Declaration Competing Interest
The authors have no professional relationship with companies of manufacturers who might benefit from the results of the study.
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