Reliability of the fluctuations within the stride time series measured in runners during treadmill running to exhaustion

Abstract

Background: The fluctuations within stride time series (i.e., stride time variability and complexity) during running exhibit long-range correlation. Detecting the breakdown of the long-range correlation was proposed for monitoring the occurrence of running-related injuries during running. However, the stride time fluctuations were only measured from the unilateral side. In addition, the reliability of the stride time fluctuations of within-subject repeated measures remains largely unknown, particularly during exhaustive running.

Purposes: This study investigated between-side and between-day reliabilities of the stride time variability and complexity of right and left sides during an exhaustive running.

Methods: The stride time variability and complexity of bilateral sides were obtained while 24 healthy participants performed a 31-minute treadmill running at their individual anaerobic threshold speed. Seven of the 24 participants performed the treadmill running test twice at two different days 5-7 days apart. Limits of agreement (LoA) and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were respectively used to assess the absolute and relative between-side and between-day reliabilities.

Results: The stride time variability and complexity of right and left sides were highly symmetrical (LoA: (-0.500%, 0.459%) and (-0.052, 0.051), respectively; ICC: 0.94 (0.87, 0.97) and 0.98 (0.95, 0.99), respectively). The overall stride time variability and complexity revealed good between-day reliability (LoA: (-1.044%, 0.724%) and (-0.067, 0.115), respectively; ICC: 0.78 (0.45, 0.92) and 0.81 (0.48, 0.93), respectively). However, the segmented stride time complexity showed poor between-day reliability (ICCs<0.40).

Conclusion: The findings demonstrated that the stride time series showed equivalent fluctuations between right and left sides and good between-day reliability in fluctuations during exhaustive running. Given the poor between-day reliability in the segmented stride time series, stride time series during exhaustive running could be collected from either right or left side and should be processed as an overall in the future.

Keywords: Between-day reliability; Exhaustion; Stride time complexity; Stride time variability; Treadmill running.