Age and walking conditions differently affect domains of gait

Analysing gait in controlled conditions that resemble daily life walking could overcome the limitations associated with gait analysis in uncontrolled real-world conditions. Such analyses could potentially aid the identification of a walking condition that magnifies age-differences in gait. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to determine the effects of age and walking conditions on gait performance. Trunk accelerations of young (n = 27, age: 21.6) and older adults (n = 26, age: 68.9) were recorded for 3 min in four conditions: walking up and down a university hallway on a track of 10 m; walking on a specified path, including turns, in a university hallway; walking outside on a specified path on a pavement including turns; and walking on a treadmill. Factor analysis was used to reduce 27 computed gait measures to five independent gait domains. A multivariate analysis of variance was used to examine the effects of age and walking condition on these gait domains. Factor analysis yielded 5 gait domains: variability, pace, stability, time & frequency, complexity, explaining 64% of the variance in 27 gait outcomes. Walking conditions affected all gait domains (p