title: Effect of arm swing strategy on local dynamic stability of human gait.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Falling causes long term disability and can even lead to death. Most falls occur during gait. Therefore improving gait stability might be beneficial for people at risk of falling. Recently arm swing has been shown to influence gait stability. However at present it remains unknown which mode of arm swing creates the most stable gait.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To examine how different modes of arm swing affect gait stability.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ten healthy young male subjects volunteered for this study. All subjects walked with four different arm swing instructions at seven different gait speeds. The Xsens motion capture suit was used to capture gait kinematics. Basic gait parameters, variability and stability measures were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found an increased stability in the medio-lateral direction with excessive arm swing in comparison to normal arm swing at all gait speeds. Moreover, excessive arm swing increased stability in the anterior-posterior and vertical direction at low gait speeds. Ipsilateral and inphase arm swing did not differ compared to a normal arm swing.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Excessive arm swing is a promising gait manipulation to improve local dynamic stability. For excessive arm swing in the ML direction there appears to be converging evidence. The effect of excessive arm swing on more clinically relevant groups like the more fall prone elderly or stroke survivors is worth further investigating.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Excessive arm swing significantly increases local dynamic stability of human gait.
authors.affiliation: Research Group Lifestyle and Health, Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, Utrecht, The Netherlands. Electronic address: michiel.punt@hu.nl.
authors.forename: Michiel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Punt
authors.affiliation: Move Research Institute Amsterdam, Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Orthopedics, First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian, PR China.
authors.forename: Sjoerd M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Bruijn
authors.affiliation: Research Group Lifestyle and Health, Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Harriet
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wittink
authors.affiliation: Move Research Institute Amsterdam, Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Jaap H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: van Dieën
mesh_terms: D061725:Accelerometry; D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000517:prevention & control; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001132:Arm / Q000502:physiology*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D005684:Gait / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology; D012016:Reference Values; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; C096356:trk protein, Drosophila
keywords: Arm swing coordination; Gait analysis; Stability; Variability