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Updated: Mar 24, 2026
Asymmetric Walkway: A Novel Behavioral Assay for Studying Asymmetric Locomotion
Published on: January 15, 2016
Variability of gait, bilateral coordination, and asymmetry in women with fibromyalgia
J Heredia-Jimenez1, E Orantes-Gonzalez1, V M Soto-Hermoso1
1Department of Physical Education and Sport, University of Granada, Crta/Alfacar s/n., 18071 Granada, Spain.
Purpose:
To analyze how fibromyalgia affected the variability, asymmetry, and bilateral coordination of gait walking at comfortable and fast speeds.
Methods:
65 fibromyalgia (FM) patients and 50 healthy women were analyzed. Gait analysis was performed using an instrumented walkway (GAITRite system). Average walking speed, coefficient of variation (CV) of stride length, swing time, and step width data were obtained and bilateral coordination and gait asymmetry were analyzed.
Results:
FM patients presented significantly lower speeds than the healthy group. FM patients obtained significantly higher values of CV_StrideLength (p=0.04; p<0.001), CV_SwingTime (p<0.001; p<0.001), CV_StepWidth (p=0.004; p<0.001), phase coordination index (p=0.01; p=0.03), and p_CV (p<0.001; p=0.001) than the control group, walking at comfortable or fast speeds. Gait asymmetry only showed significant differences in the fast condition.
Conclusion:
FM patients walked more slowly and presented a greater variability of gait and worse bilateral coordination than healthy subjects. Gait asymmetry only showed differences in the fast condition. The variability and the bilateral coordination were particularly affected by FM in women. Therefore, variability and bilateral coordination of gait could be analyzed to complement the gait evaluation of FM patients.
