The Effect of Unstable Treadmill Gait Training on Healthy Young Adults: A Pilot Study
Presenter Type
UNO Graduate Student (Doctoral)
Major/Field of Study
Biomechanics
Author ORCID Identifier
0000-0003-2500-9557
Advisor Information
David Kingston, PhD
Location
CEC RM #116
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Start Date
22-3-2024 2:30 PM
End Date
22-3-2024 3:45 PM
Abstract
Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common neuromuscular disability affecting a child’s overall mobility and balance. To address these deficits, treadmill gait training has been used in rehabilitation but lacks task variability experienced in the real world. Therefore, we speculate that using unstable treadmill gait training may promote robust walking strategies more efficiently. To determine if this novel paradigm would be appropriate for children with CP, we assessed six healthy young adults (3M:3F; age: 26.5 ± 4.67 years; height: 1.68 ± 0.11 m; weight: 65.49 ± 16.45 kg). Each participant completed bouts of overground (OG) walking before and after four treadmill bouts (U0 = 0%, U1 = 120%, U2 = 160%, U3 = 200%), with higher percentages indicating more movement to the walking surface. When comparing both OG conditions, no differences were observed in step length, step width, or margin of stability in the mediolateral or anteroposterior directions. During unstable treadmill walking, there were decreases in the margin of stability in the anteroposterior direction for U0 to U2 (p = 0.01; Δ = -0.23 mm) and U0 to U3 (p < 0.01; Δ = -0.26 mm). Preliminary results suggest that this paradigm may not appropriately assess how children with CP adapt to varied walking surfaces. Therefore, the results of this study have been used to iterate our unstable walking paradigm to a new exposure for investigating how children with CP adjust to an unstable walking surface.
The Effect of Unstable Treadmill Gait Training on Healthy Young Adults: A Pilot Study
CEC RM #116
Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common neuromuscular disability affecting a child’s overall mobility and balance. To address these deficits, treadmill gait training has been used in rehabilitation but lacks task variability experienced in the real world. Therefore, we speculate that using unstable treadmill gait training may promote robust walking strategies more efficiently. To determine if this novel paradigm would be appropriate for children with CP, we assessed six healthy young adults (3M:3F; age: 26.5 ± 4.67 years; height: 1.68 ± 0.11 m; weight: 65.49 ± 16.45 kg). Each participant completed bouts of overground (OG) walking before and after four treadmill bouts (U0 = 0%, U1 = 120%, U2 = 160%, U3 = 200%), with higher percentages indicating more movement to the walking surface. When comparing both OG conditions, no differences were observed in step length, step width, or margin of stability in the mediolateral or anteroposterior directions. During unstable treadmill walking, there were decreases in the margin of stability in the anteroposterior direction for U0 to U2 (p = 0.01; Δ = -0.23 mm) and U0 to U3 (p < 0.01; Δ = -0.26 mm). Preliminary results suggest that this paradigm may not appropriately assess how children with CP adapt to varied walking surfaces. Therefore, the results of this study have been used to iterate our unstable walking paradigm to a new exposure for investigating how children with CP adjust to an unstable walking surface.