Retest reliability of spatiotemporal gait parameters in children and adults

The objective of the study was to assess the retest-reliability of ten different gait parameters in healthy children (n = 12; age 6-7 years) and adults (n = 12; age 21-35 years) during free-speed locomotion on a simple walkway. Further the intra-subject variability of the stride dimensions was checked. On two occasions, spatial gait parameters were measured by footprint analysis, temporal dimensions were recorded using video-analysis. For spatial gait parameters, correlation coefficients (ICC, Pearson's r) between the test and the retest results were found to be high in adults and satisfying in children. The temporal parameters were less consistent. Generally the within-trial variability was higher in children than in adults. Conclusions: (i) The retest reliability for the measurement of the spatial gait parameters can be judged as high. (ii) For gait analysis in children it should be taken into account that gait parameters are more variable from trial to trial than in adults. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.