Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

In order to assess typical day-to-day walking in a lab, there must be enough space for participants to walk continuously and feel as if they are walking as they do outside. However, with testing equipment and a typical lab setup, this is not always possible. Using a treadmill would allow for continuous walking in a much smaller space. For treadmill walking to be a possible option for walking rehabilitation and training, we must first confirm that the walking pattern used on the treadmill is comparable to a typical walking pattern. This project assessed walking patterns of healthy young adults (average age 23 years) and healthy older adults (average age 73 years) while walking at a comfortable pace along a hallway and on a treadmill. In general, both young and older adults maintained their walking cadence (steps taken per minute) but increased the time spent with their feet planted on the ground from hallway walking to treadmill walking. We believe this was an effort to use the sensory information from the bottom of the foot to help better plan for their upcoming steps. The main difference between young and older adults was shown in the way participants moved their trunk while walking. While younger adults increased their side-to-side motion of their trunk from hallway walking to treadmill walking, older adults did the opposite and decreased the side-to-side range of motion of their trunk. We believe this decrease in trunk motion was an effort to exert better control over their upper body and focus their effort on their leg movements. Taken together our results confirm that older adults are capable of walking on the treadmill however, like young adults, there are changes to their walking pattern that take place from typical overground walking. These results will be important to informing future walking rehabilitation protocols using a treadmill.