Elsevier

Gait & Posture

Volume 92, February 2022, Pages 8-14
Gait & Posture

Full length article
6MWT on a new self-paced treadmill system compared with overground

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaitpost.2021.11.015Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Participants walked a greater distance on treadmill compared with overground 6MWTs.

  • A low-cost LIDAR sensor was a reliable tool to self-pace a treadmill.

  • Similar gait parameters were found between the treadmill and overground 6MWTs.

  • The use of a LIDAR sensor was demonstrated for self-pacing a 6MWT on a treadmill.

Abstract

The 6-min walk test (6MWT) is a useful tool for clinicians and researchers to estimate gait performance and fatigue affecting functional mobility. A modified 6MWT administered on a treadmill (TM) can be an efficient, space-saving alternative to perform the 6MWT. The aim of this study was to investigate if a 6MWT on a self-paced (SP) TM produced similar results compared to an overground (OG) 6MWT among healthy participants with the hypothesis that users would demonstrate similar gait parameters. The second aim was to assess the reliability of SP TM sessions with the hypothesis that gait parameters would be reliable. Twelve healthy young adults performed one OG 6MWT and two SP TM 6MWTs, with the TM tests performed on two different testing days. The OG 6MWTs were conducted along a 20 m corridor with a portable optometric system. The SP TM 6MWTs were performed using a dual-belt instrumented TM with speed controlled by feedback from a LIDAR sensor. In the OG condition, participants walked 664.8 m ± 48.9 m when the standard method was used to calculate distance and 721.3 m ± 56.2 m with an average-speed-based estimation of distance, which corrects for U-turns. For the SP TM 6MWT, they covered 729.4 m ± 45.8 m in the first session and 727.4 m ± 56.0 m in the second session. Gait parameters showed good to excellent within- and between-day reliability on the adaptive TM. Gait parameters were similar between modalities. A significant difference in the 6MWT distance was found between modalities. This is attributable to the U-turns, because a comparison between TM 6MWT distance and the average-speed-based estimation of the distance for the OG modality showed no significant difference. However, this system produced similar spatiotemporal gait parameters among participants compared to OG.

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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