Kinematic characteristics during gait in frail older women identified by principal component analysis

Abstract

Frailty is associated with gait variability in several quantitative parameters, including high stride time variability. However, the associations between joint kinematics during walking and increased gait variability with frailty remain unclear. In the current study, principal component analysis was used to identify the key joint kinematics characteristics of gait related to frailty. We analyzed whole kinematic waveforms during the entire gait cycle obtained from the pelvis and lower limb joint angle in 30 older women (frail/prefrail: 15 participants; non-frail: 15 participants). Principal component analysis was conducted using a 60 × 1224 input matrix constructed from participants' time-normalized pelvic and lower-limb-joint angles along three axes (each leg of 30 participants, 51 time points, four angles, three axes, and two variables). Statistical analyses revealed that only principal component vectors 6 and 9 were related to frailty. Recombining the joint kinematics corresponding to these principal component vectors revealed that frail older women tended to exhibit greater variability of knee- and ankle-joint angles in the sagittal plane while walking compared with non-frail older women. We concluded that greater variability of knee- and ankle-joint angles in the sagittal plane are joint kinematic characteristics of gait related to frailty.

Figure 1

Waveforms of variability (standard deviation: SD) recombined from the principal component scores of principal component vectors 6 and 9. The gray highlighted area indicates the instance of the toe off (the transition from the stance phase to the swing phase). This area has a certain width because we did not separate the stance phase from the swing phase in the time-normalization procedure.

Figure 2

Waveforms of central tendency (average) recombined from the principal component scores of principal component vectors 6 and 9. The definitions of the abbreviations in the variability graph are as follows: Post. posterior tilt, Ant. anterior tilt, Flex. flexion, Ext. extension, D.F. dorsiflexion, P.F. plantarflexion, Hike. pelvic hike, Drop. pelvic drop, Add. adduction, Abd. abduction, I.R. internal rotation, E.R. external rotation, Ever. eversion, Inv. inversion.