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Updated: Apr 4, 2026
Using a Split-belt Treadmill to Evaluate Generalization of Human Locomotor Adaptation
Published on: August 23, 2017
Kinetic comparison of walking on a treadmill versus over ground in children with cerebral palsy
Marjolein M van der Krogt1, Lizeth H Sloot1, Annemieke I Buizer1
1Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, MOVE Research Institute Amsterdam, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Insights
Treadmill walking data differs significantly from overground walking for children with cerebral palsy (CP) and typically developing (TD) children. Specific treadmill normative data are essential for accurate clinical gait analysis in CP.
Area of Science:
- Biomechanics
- Clinical Gait Analysis
- Pediatric Rehabilitation
Background:
- Instrumented treadmills allow for extensive kinetic data collection during gait analysis.
- The validity of treadmill-derived kinetic outcomes for children, especially those with cerebral palsy (CP), remains largely unestablished.
- Overground (OG) walking is the traditional method for gait analysis, but treadmill (TM) analysis offers advantages in data acquisition.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare kinetic gait parameters between overground and self-paced treadmill walking in typically developing (TD) children and children with spastic CP.
- To determine if kinetic data from treadmill walking can be directly compared to overground walking data for pediatric populations.
- To identify differences in gait strategies adopted during treadmill versus overground locomotion.
Main Methods:
- Comparison of ground reaction forces (GRF), center of pressure, and joint moments, powers, and work at the hip, knee, and ankle.
- Data collected from 11 TD children and 9 children with spastic CP during both OG and self-paced TM walking.
- Analysis focused on identifying significant differences in kinetic outcomes between the two walking conditions.
Main Results:
- Significant differences observed in several kinetic parameters between TM and OG walking.
- Subjects exhibited reduced ankle power generation and increased absorption, alongside greater hip moments and work during TM walking.
- Increased mediolateral GRF and hip/knee joint moments were noted in TM walking, attributed to wider step width and altered posture.
- A shift in gait strategy from ankle to hip dominance was evident on the treadmill.
Conclusions:
- Kinetic gait data obtained from treadmills are not directly comparable to overground data for TD children and children with CP.
- Treadmill walking elicits different biomechanical strategies compared to overground walking.
- Development of treadmill-specific normative datasets is crucial for valid kinetic gait analysis in pediatric populations using instrumented treadmills.
Abstract:
Kinetic outcomes are an essential part of clinical gait analysis, and can be collected for many consecutive strides using instrumented treadmills. However, the validity of treadmill kinetic outcomes has not been demonstrated for children with cerebral palsy (CP). In this study we compared ground reaction forces (GRF), center of pressure, and hip, knee and ankle moments, powers and work, between overground (OG) and self-paced treadmill (TM) walking for 11 typically developing (TD) children and 9 children with spastic CP. Considerable differences were found in several outcome parameters. In TM, subjects demonstrated lower ankle power generation and more absorption, and increased hip moments and work. This shift from ankle to hip strategy was likely due to a more backward positioning of the hip and a slightly more forward trunk lean. In mediolateral direction, GRF and hip and knee joint moments were increased in TM due to wider step width. These findings indicate that kinetic data collected on a TM cannot be readily compared with OG data in TD children and children with CP, and that treadmill-specific normative data sets should be used when performing kinetic gait analysis on a treadmill.
