OBJECTIVE: To determine whether grasping the handrails during treadmill walking affects sagittal plane kinematic parameters selected to describe walking style. DESIGN: Crossover trial. SETTING: A university motion analysis laboratory. PARTICIPANTS: A convenience sample comprised of 15 apparently healthy college-age volunteers. INTERVENTION: After being acclimatized to treadmill walking, subjects were videotaped while completing two treadmill walking bouts. Each bout was 10 minutes in duration and was conducted at a walking speed of 1.5m/sec. Subjects were instructed to grasp the handrails in one bout (GRASP) but to refrain from using the handrails in the other (FREE). Both bouts were conducted in a single session and were separated by a 10-minute rest period. The order in which subjects completed the bouts was randomized. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Five successive strides occurring during the last 30 seconds of each bout were digitized. The coordinate data were numerically filtered and the following parameters derived: stride length, percentage of stride cycle spent in double-support, and the hip, knee, and ankle angles at heel-strike and toe-off. The results for the five strides in each bout were averaged and the average value was used in the statistical analysis. The FREE and GRASP conditions were compared with t tests for dependent samples (p < or = .05). RESULTS: There were no differences between the FREE and GRASP conditions for any of the parameters assessed. CONCLUSIONS: Subjects may grasp the treadmill handrails without affecting sagittal plane kinematic parameters of walking style.
RCT Entities:
OBJECTIVE: To determine whether grasping the handrails during treadmill walking affects sagittal plane kinematic parameters selected to describe walking style. DESIGN: Crossover trial. SETTING: A university motion analysis laboratory. PARTICIPANTS: A convenience sample comprised of 15 apparently healthy college-age volunteers. INTERVENTION: After being acclimatized to treadmill walking, subjects were videotaped while completing two treadmill walking bouts. Each bout was 10 minutes in duration and was conducted at a walking speed of 1.5m/sec. Subjects were instructed to grasp the handrails in one bout (GRASP) but to refrain from using the handrails in the other (FREE). Both bouts were conducted in a single session and were separated by a 10-minute rest period. The order in which subjects completed the bouts was randomized. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Five successive strides occurring during the last 30 seconds of each bout were digitized. The coordinate data were numerically filtered and the following parameters derived: stride length, percentage of stride cycle spent in double-support, and the hip, knee, and ankle angles at heel-strike and toe-off. The results for the five strides in each bout were averaged and the average value was used in the statistical analysis. The FREE and GRASP conditions were compared with t tests for dependent samples (p < or = .05). RESULTS: There were no differences between the FREE and GRASP conditions for any of the parameters assessed. CONCLUSIONS: Subjects may grasp the treadmill handrails without affecting sagittal plane kinematic parameters of walking style.
Authors: Trisha M Kesar; Ramu Perumal; Darcy S Reisman; Angela Jancosko; Katherine S Rudolph; Jill S Higginson; Stuart A Binder-Macleod Journal: Stroke Date: 2009-10-15 Impact factor: 7.914
Authors: Trisha M Kesar; Ramu Perumal; Angela Jancosko; Darcy S Reisman; Katherine S Rudolph; Jill S Higginson; Stuart A Binder-Macleod Journal: Phys Ther Date: 2009-11-19