Are spatiotemporal gait characteristics reliable outcome measures in children with developmental coordination disorder?
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the reliability of spatiotemporal gait parameters used in the clinical evaluation of children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD).


METHODS
Participants recruited were asked to ambulate across a 4.5-meter GAITRite walkway (CIR Systems, Inc, Havertown, Pennsylvania) at a self-selected walking speed. The spatiotemporal parameters recorded for both limbs were: velocity (cm/sec), stance phase duration (%), swing phase duration (%), stride length (cm), double support duration (%), and single support duration (%).


RESULTS
Intraclass correlation coefficient values attained in this study ranged from 0.24 to 0.73, with good reliability achieved for one parameter (cadence = 0.73), and moderate reliability for step length (0.55-0.58), stride length (0.57-0.61), and double support duration (0.56-0.59).


CONCLUSIONS
The findings from this study indicate that the clinical evaluation of spatiotemporal gait parameters in children with DCD can yield reliable data for some parameters but further work on this is warranted.
School of Health, Sport and Bioscience, University of East London, London, England, UK. s.c.morrison@uel.ac.uk
Stewart C
SC
Morrison
Jill
J
Ferrari
Sally
S
Smillie
D000054:Acceleration; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005260:Female; D005684:Gait; D020233:Gait Disorders, Neurologic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome