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Updated: Dec 19, 2025
Clinical Assessment of Spatiotemporal Gait Parameters in Patients and Older Adults
Published on: November 7, 2014
Discriminant validity and reproducibility of spatiotemporal and kinetic parameters during treadmill walking in
Daniela Pacifico1, Rosa Visscher2, Renate List3
1Human Performance Lab, Schulthess Clinic, Zurich, Switzerland; Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Winterthur, Switzerland.
Background:
Instrumented treadmills are potentially useful tools for the assessment of gait parameters in orthopaedic clinical settings, but their measurement properties remain uncertain.
Research Question:
What is the discriminant validity and reproducibility of spatiotemporal and kinetic gait parameters measured by a pressure-instrumented treadmill at different speeds and inclinations in patients with knee osteoarthritis (KOA)?
Methods:
A total of 54 patients with unilateral KOA and 23 healthy controls took part in the study. Step length, single-limb support duration and ground reaction force were recorded during level and uphill walking at 3 and 4 km/h using a commercially-available treadmill instrumented with an integrated pressure platform. We examined discriminant validity (difference between involved and uninvolved side as well as against healthy controls) and test-retest reproducibility (reliability and agreement).
Results:
Significant side differences were observed for single-limb support duration and ground reaction force at touchdown in all conditions (P < 0.05). All the investigated gait parameters showed acceptable reliability and agreement, except step length at 4 km/h uphill.
Significance:
We conclude that the pressure-instrumented treadmill used in this study may have good clinical utility for quantitative gait analysis in patients with KOA under different experimental conditions.
