BACKGROUND Functional independence with aging is an important goal for individuals and society. Simple prognostic indicators can inform health promotion and care planning, but evidence is limited by heterogeneity in measures of function. METHODS We performed a pooled analysis of data from seven studies of 27,220 community-dwelling older adults aged 65 or older with baseline gait speed, follow...

The aim of this study was to compare the seven following commercially available activity monitors in terms of step count detection accuracy: Movemonitor (Mc Roberts), Up (Jawbone), One (Fitbit), ActivPAL (PAL Technologies Ltd.), Nike+ Fuelband (Nike Inc.), Tractivity (Kineteks Corp.) and Sensewear Armband Mini (Bodymedia). Sixteen healthy adults consented to take part in the study. The experime...

During rehabilitation, many patient groups are being trained using bodyweight-supported treadmill training. However, little is known about modulation of time and distance parameters, joint movements and leg muscle EMG patterns by very low walking speeds or partial bodyweight unloading. We collected data from 20 healthy young volunteers who walked on a treadmill at walking speeds varying between...

It is well known that stroke patients walk with reduced speed, but their potential to increase walking speed can also be impaired and has not been thoroughly investigated. We hypothesized that failure to effectively recruit both hip flexor and ankle plantarflexor muscles of the paretic side limits the potential to increase walking speed in lower functioning hemiparetic subjects. To test this hy...

With the increasing size and frequency of mass events, the study of crowd disasters and the simulation of pedestrian flows have become important research areas. However, even successful modeling approaches such as those inspired by Newtonian force models are still not fully consistent with empirical observations and are sometimes hard to calibrate. Here, a cognitive science approach is proposed...

BACKGROUND Walking speed is assumed to be a key factor in regaining ambulation after spinal cord injury (SCI). However, from the literature it remains unclear which walking speed usually results in independent community ambulation. OBJECTIVE The primary aim of this study was to determine at which walking speed SCI patients tend to walk in the community instead of using a wheelchair. The secon...

The biomechanics of the human body allow humans a range of possible ways of executing movements to attain specific goals. This range of movement is limited by a number of mechanical, biomechanical, or cognitive constraints. Shifts in these limits result in changes available possible movements from which a subject can select and can affect which movements a subject selects. Therefore by understa...

The electromyographic (EMG) gait patterns of both lower limbs in 12 hemiparetic patients were studied during the early and late recovery periods. The linear envelopes of surface EMG were ensemble averaged to represent performance. The patients' stride parameters and EMG envelopes were compared to those of normal individuals measured at very-slow walking speeds. Both limbs could have normal or a...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the influence of pain on vertical ground-reaction force (VGRF) in patients with low back problems and the effect of the Pilates method on the gait of these patients. DESIGN A single-blind randomized controlled trial. PARTICIPANTS 28 individuals assigned to a control group (n = 11) and a low-back group (n = 17), the latter of which was subdivided into a Pilates group (n...

These case reports describe a stationary cycling intervention and outcomes for two child participants (P1 and P2) with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy. Each child completed a 12-week, 30-session cycling intervention consisting of strengthening and cardiorespiratory fitness phases. P1 exhibited higher training intensities, particularly during the cardiorespiratory phase. Average training heart r...