title: High-Technology Based Gait Assessment in Frail People: Associations between Spatio-Temporal and Three-Dimensional Gait Characteristics with Frailty Status across Four Different Frailty Measures.
abstract: We analyzed associations between a battery of gait characteristics and frailty status across four different frailty instruments in old patients.
  
  
  
  Cross-sectional study.
  
  
  
  Geriatric wards of a general hospital.
  
  
  
  123 hospitalized patients aged ≥65 years.
  
  
  
  Spatio-temporal and three-dimensional gait characteristics were assessed by an electronic walkway and a shoe-mounted, inertial sensor-based mobile gait analysis system. Frailty status was assessed by the frailty phenotype (FP), Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS), frailty index (FI), and frailty index based on a comprehensive geriatric assessment (FI-CGA).
  
  
  
  A reduction in walking speed (FP, FI, FI-CGA), stride length (FP, FI, FI-CGA), maximum toe clearance (FP, CFS, FI, FI-CGA), toe off angle (FP, CFS, FI, FI-CGA), heal strike angle (FI-CGA) and greater stride length variability (FP, CFS, FI, FI-CGA), stride time variability (FP, FI), double support time (FP, FI), and stride width (CFA, FI-CGA) were associated with frailty status across the four frailty instruments (all P < 0.05, respectively). Walking speed (FP, CFS, FI, FI-CGA), stride length (FP, CFS, FI, FI-CGA), maximum toe clearance (FP, CFS, FI, FI-CGA), toe off angle (FP, CFS, FI, FI-CGA), heal strike angle (FP, FI), stride length variability (CFS, FI, FI-CGA), stride time variability (FI), double support time (FP), and stride width (FP, CFS, FI) were related with frailty severity across the four frailty instruments independent of age and sex (all P adjusted < 0.05, respectively).
  
  
  
  Gait changes in frail patients include more than solely a reduction in walking speed.
authors.affiliation: Martin Ritt, Department of Internal Medicine III (Medicine of Ageing), Geriatrics Center Erlangen, Hospital of the Congregation of St. Francis Sisters of Vierzehnheiligen, Rathsbergerstraße 57, D-91054 Erlangen, Tel: +49-(0)9131 822 3702, Fax: +49-(0)9131 822 3703, Email: Martin.Ritt@waldkrankenhaus.de.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ritt
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schülein
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lubrich
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Bollheimer
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Sieber
authors.forename: K-G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Gaßmann
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D016330:Frail Elderly; D005684:Gait / Q000502:physiology*; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013672:Technology; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Frailty; gait characteristics; older people