Weighting the relative importance of behaviors affecting gait score

This research communication evaluates experts' opinions on the importance and weights of six gait aspects. In 2016, a Qualtrics (Qualtrics LLC., Provo, Utah) survey was distributed to lameness experts. Six gait aspects - general symmetry, tracking, spine curvature, head bobbing, speed and abduction as well as adduction were included. Respondents were asked to rank the gait aspects from 1 (most important) to 6 (least important), and to indicate which weight each gait aspect should receive when assessing lameness. For each gait aspect, frequency (percentage %) was used to describe the distribution of rank, and medians as well as 25th and 75th percentiles were used to summarize assigned weights. Thirty-nine percent of respondents ranked general symmetry first, followed by 32% for tracking, and 19% ranked spine curvature third. Head bobbing ranked fourth with 10% whereas, speed, abduction and adduction were not ranked. The median, 25th and 75th percentiles weight for each gait aspect were: general symmetry (25, 15, and 30), tracking (20, 10, and 30), spine curvature (20, 10, and 21), head bobbing (15, 10, and 20), speed (10, 5, and 20), and abduction and adduction (10, 5, and 10). General symmetry and tracking were deemed the most important gait aspects. A composite gait score can be calculated based on weighted importance of different gait aspects to indicate possible lameness.