Concurrent validity of SMTEC® footswitches system for the measurement of temporal gait parameters

The GAITRite (R) system is a validated portable gait analysis system that allows simple objective gait measurements. The limited length of the active area of the GAITRite (R) system may be a limitation in obtaining reliable measures of stride-to-stride variability. In contrast, the SMTEC (R) footswitches system provides a continuous measurement of temporal step parameters for a long distance and a long period (around 24 h). The aim of the study was to examine the concurrent validity of the SMTEC (R) footswitches system with the GAITRite (R) system for the measurement of temporal steps parameters. Step, stride, swing and stance time were simultaneously recorded using SMTEC (R) and GAITRite (R) systems while walking at normal, slow and fast self-selected walking speed among 13 healthy young adults. The level of agreement between both systems was high as for the stride time with intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) between 0.95 and 0.99 (P < 0.001) and repeatability coefficients (RC) between 1.1% and 1.5% of mean values, whereas the lowest level of agreement was shown at fast self-selected walking speed and for stance time (ICC = 0.52 with P < 0.001 and RC = 4.9%). Furthermore, the measurement of individual footstep data was excellent with an agreement ranging between -0.04 and 0.04 s (Pitman's test of difference in variance: r = -0.009, P = 0.772). The present results suggest that the SMTEC (R) footswitches system provides a valid and reliable measurement of temporal gait parameters in healthy young adults. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.