Spatiotemporal walking performance in different settings: effects of walking speed and sex

Background Understanding the factors that influence walking is important as quantitative walking assessments have potential to inform health risk assessments. Wearable technology innovation has enabled quantitative walking assessments to be conducted in different settings. Understanding how different settings influence quantitative walking performance is required to better utilize the health-related potential of quantitative walking assessments.Research question How does spatiotemporal walking performance differ during walking in different settings at different speeds for young adults?Methods Forty-two young adults [21 male (23 +/- 4 years), 21 female (24 +/- 5 years)] walked in two laboratory settings (overground, treadmill) and three non-laboratory settings (hallway, indoor open, outdoor pathway) at three self-selected speeds (slow, preferred, fast) following verbal instructions. Six walking trials of each condition (10 m in laboratory overground, 20 m in other settings) were completed. Participants wore 17 inertial sensors (Xsens Awinda, Movella, Henderson, NV) and spatiotemporal parameters were computed from sensor-derived kinematics. Setting x speed x sex repeated measures analysis of variance were used for statistical analysis.Results Regardless of the speed condition, participants walked faster overground when compared to while on the treadmill and walked faster in the indoor open and outdoor pathway settings when compared to the laboratory overground setting. At slow speeds, participants also walked faster in the hallway when compared to the laboratory overground setting. Females had greater cadence when compared to males, independent of settings and speed conditions.Significance Particularly at slow speeds, spatiotemporal walking performance was different between the settings, suggesting that setting characteristics such as walkway boundary definition may significantly influence spatiotemporal walking performance.