title: Validity of a Wireless Gait Analysis Tool (Wi-GAT) in assessing spatio-temporal gait parameters at slow, preferred and fast walking speeds.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The wireless gait assessment tool (Wi-GAT) measures have been shown to have good to excellent concurrent validity with preferred walking speeds, however, the validity of the Wi-GAT measures at slow and fast walking speeds is unknown.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To establish validity of the Wi-GAT spatio-temporal gait measures at slow, fast, and preferred walking speeds.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty two healthy adult volunteers, with a mean age of 25.7 (± 5.3) participated in this study. The spatio-temporal gait variables of each participant were concurrently recorded using the GAITrite and the Wi-GAT system, while the participants performed 3 trials for each walking speed in a randomized order. Intraclass correlation analyses were performed to establish the agreement between the measures recorded by the GAITrite and Wi-GAT systems.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Walking speed measured both by the Wi-GAT and the GAITrite systems showed excellent agreement for preferred (ICC = 0.979 p< 0.001), slow (ICC = 0.989 p< 0.001) and fast (ICC = 0.967 p< 0.001) walking speeds. Most gait parameters recorded at slow walking speed showed good (ICC > 0.70) to excellent (ICC > 0.85) agreement.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Gait parameters recorded by the Wi-GAT system showed fair to excellent validity for preferred and slow walking speeds.
authors.forename: Ashley M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: DesJardins
authors.forename: Martha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schiller
authors.forename: Enas
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Eraqi
authors.forename: Amanda Nicole
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Samuels
authors.forename: Sujay S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Galen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005684:Gait / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008824:Michigan; D008875:Middle Aged; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D026741:Physical Therapy Modalities / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D062211:Spatio-Temporal Analysis; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*; D059015:Wireless Technology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Gait analysis; gait speed; spatio-temporal gait parameters; wireless sensors