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Updated: May 21, 2026
Clinical-oriented Three-dimensional Gait Analysis Method for Evaluating Gait Disorder
Published on: March 4, 2018
Quantitative analysis of gait coordination based on gait events in children with cerebral palsy
Longwei Chen1, Jue Wang, Lin Gao
1Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering, Ministry of Education, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, PR China.
Insights
This study introduces a gait coordination index (GCI) to measure lower limb movement in children with cerebral palsy (CP). The GCI effectively quantifies gait improvements after rehabilitation.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Pediatric Rehabilitation
- Movement Science
Background:
- Cerebral palsy (CP) significantly impacts lower limb gait coordination.
- Quantifying gait coordination is crucial for assessing rehabilitation effectiveness in children with CP.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a Gait Coordination Index (GCI) for quantifying lower limb gait coordination in children with CP.
- To assess the GCI's utility in tracking rehabilitation progress.
Main Methods:
- Kinematic data (hip and knee joint angles) were collected from children with typical development and children with CP (pre- and post-rehabilitation).
- A GCI model was developed using kernel-based principal component analysis on typical gait data.
- The GCI was calculated for children with CP and compared using ANOVA; reliability was assessed with intraclass correlation coefficients.
Main Results:
- GCI was significantly lower in children with CP pre-rehabilitation compared to typical development, and improved post-rehabilitation, though still lower than typical.
- Significant differences in GCI were observed among CP severity levels (I, II, III) pre-rehabilitation.
- The GCI demonstrated high reliability (ICC > 0.8).
Conclusions:
- The developed Gait Coordination Index (GCI) accurately reflects lower limb gait coordination in children with CP.
- GCI shows promise as a valuable tool for evaluating the efficacy of rehabilitation interventions in pediatric CP.
Objective:
The objective of this study was to quantify gait coordination of the lower limbs in children with cerebral palsy (CP) based on gait events.
Design:
The kinematic data of 50 children with typical development and 26 children with CP prerehabilitation and postrehabilitation were recorded. The hip and knee joint angles in the sagittal plane on both sides were obtained at six gait events. Then a gait coordination index (GCI) model was established based on the gait features extracted from the joint angles of the children with typical development using kernel-based principal component analysis, which was then used to calculate the GCI of children with CP. One-way analysis of variance was used to compare GCI and joint angles at each gait event. Intraclass correlation coefficient was calculated to evaluate the reliability of GCI in two trials separated by a day.
Results:
GCI in children with CP postrehabilitation was significantly higher than that in the children with typical development (P < 0.05) but significantly lower than that in children with CP prerehabilitation (P < 0.05). There are significant differences in GCI for children with CP prerehabilitation between level I, level II, and level III (P < 0.05). The results of intraclass correlation coefficients (>0.8) indicated that the obtained GCIs were reliable.
Conclusions:
GCI can reflect gait coordination of lower limbs in children with CP and may be a useful tool for rehabilitation assessment.
