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. 2020 Oct 6;8(4):386.
doi: 10.3390/healthcare8040386.

The Effects of Systematic Environmental Manipulation on Gait of Older Adults

Max Toepfer  1   2 , Alejandra Padilla  2 , Kevin Ponto  3   4 , Andrea H Mason  2 , Kristen A Pickett  1   2
Affiliations

The Effects of Systematic Environmental Manipulation on Gait of Older Adults

Max Toepfer et al. Healthcare (Basel). .

Abstract

Quantification of gait changes in response to altered environmental stimuli may allow for improved understanding of the mechanisms that influence gait changes and fall occurrence in older adults. This study explored how systematic manipulation of a single dimension of one's environment affects spatiotemporal gait parameters. A total of 20 older adult participants walked at a self-selected pace in a constructed research hallway featuring a mobile wall, which allowed manipulation of the hallway width between three conditions: 1.14 m, 1.31 m, and 1.48 m. Spatiotemporal data from participants' walks were captured using an instrumented GAITRite mat. A repeated measures ANOVA revealed older adults spent significantly more time in double support in the narrowest hallway width compared to the widest, but did not significantly alter other spatiotemporal measures. Small-scale manipulations of a single dimension of the environment led to subtle, yet in some cases significant changes in gait, suggesting that small or even imperceptible environmental changes may contribute to altered gait patterns for older adults.

Keywords: cognitive load; dual task; falls; gait; kinematic; older adults; physical environment.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Hallway width conditions. The right wall was positioned in one of three experimental conditions: (A) narrow, (B) medium, or (C) wide, where the distance from the left wall to the right wall was 1.14 m, 1.31 m, or 1.48 m, respectively. The GAITRite mat was repositioned for each condition to maintain a centralized position.
Figure 2
Figure 2
A top-down diagram of the research hallway and the three width conditions. The functional entrance is featured on the bottom of the diagram with the four distractor doors colored in blue.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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