Variability of gait characterized by normalized deviation.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of sport, age and different orthopeadical diseases on the variability of gait. 45 healthy, young subjects, 11 professional hand ball players, 24 patients after medial meniscectomy, 20 elderly, healthy subjects, and 20 patients with hip osteoarthritis were examined. The average, the standard deviation and the normalized deviation of spatial and temporal parameters were calculated for each person examined and in each group. Our data suggested that the normalized deviation of parameters enables the modelling of dynamic perception, because it is independent of parameter values due to normalization. Our tests show that the size of the parameter is independent of lateral dominance in healthy subjects. The magnitude of the coefficient of the variation of parameters depends on age, on the intensity of sports activities, and on orthopaedical diseases.