title: The effect of gait speed on lateral balance control during walking in healthy elderly.
abstract: The aim of this paper was to investigate the effect of speed dependency on lateral gait parameters. In 36 healthy elderly (mean age=72.5 years, S.D.=3.2 years), walking at four different self-administered speeds, mediolateral trunk acceleration and step width (SW), but not step-width variability (SWV), were found to have quadratic relations to gait speed. Normalizing for speed by curvilinear interpolation, and controlling for subject characteristics, disclosed smaller SW (adjusted R2=0.41, P<0.001), but larger SWV (adjusted R2=0.26, P=0.01) with increasing age in multiple regression models. These relations were camouflaged at preferred speed.
authors.affiliation: Section of Physiotherapy Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway. jorunn.helbostad@isf.uib.no
authors.forename: Jorunn L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Helbostad
authors.forename: Rolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Moe-Nilssen
mesh_terms: D000054:Acceleration; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005684:Gait / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D004856:Postural Balance / Q000502:physiology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013909:Thorax / Q000502:physiology; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*