Introduction: : Previous research revealed that factors such as history of falls and age can significantly affect spatial and temporal variables of gait individually. However, further exploration of the confounding variables is essential to gain a deeper understanding of the effect of each factor on the variability of gait as individuals age and falls. The research sought to examine whether variations exist in the gait parameters of elderly individuals in relation to their fall history during self-selected walking speed (SSWS). It is posited that the history of falls could potentially impact the gait parameters of older adults.
Methods: 22 elderly women were allocated in two groups according to their fall history fallers and non-fallers, Participants performed a three-minute walking test self-selected walking speed on a treadmill. At the outset, the participants' self-chosen walking speeds were evaluated on a treadmill. Then they walked on the treadmill for three minutes at their chosen speed. Fall history, anthropometric data, and spatiotemporal gait parameters were evaluated. The study was ethically approved by the Sport Sciences Research Institute of Iran under the ethics SSRI.REC-2212-1977.
Results: Data analysis revealed that spatiotemporal parameters accounted for a significant portion of the variance in walking (SSWS), mainly involving temporal factors (cadence and step time). The parameters, which comprised spatial measures (stride length, Double support), displayed the most noticeable impact. spatiotemporal parameters effectively distinguished the history of falls. And the walking speed in the fallers group was significantly lower than the speed in the non-fallers group (The p-value is considered smaller equal than 0.05).
Conclusions: spatiotemporal parameters are the main factors explaining gait variability of fallers elderly, in SSWS. This method shows promise in pinpointing fall risk factors and creating tailored interventions for elderly individuals vulnerable to falls.
Keywords: Aging; Falls; Gait; spatiotemporal parameters; walk.