Is it possible to identify the gender and age group of adults from gait analysis with hip-knee cyclograms?

• Autor(a) principal: Abreu,Ródney Silva
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Naves,Eduardo Lázaro Martins, Caparelli,Thiago Bruno, Mariano,Daniel Teodoro Gonçalves, Dionísio,Valdeci Carlos
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista Brasileira de Engenharia Biomédica (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1517-31512014000300010
• topic: Gait; Young adults; Elderly; Gender; Cyclogram

INTRODUCTION: Cyclograms are gait analysis tools that characterize the geometric aspect of the pattern of locomotion. Cyclograms are angle-angle diagrams that are very useful for representing cyclic patterns such as walking. This study is based on the hypothesis that parameters extracted from hip-knee cyclograms of individuals walking on a treadmill with 0° and 5° slopes can be used to determine the age group and sex of the volunteers. METHODS: In total, 40 physically active healthy adult volunteers, 20 young people (10 of each gender) and 20 elderly (10 of each gender), were divided into 4 groups, and the average value of area (A), perimeter (P) and the ratio P/√A of cyclogram were calculated, as well as the speed and cadence. RESULTS: The young male (YM) speeds were higher than the elderly male (EM) speeds (p=0.00), and the young female (YF) speeds were higher than the elderly female (EF) speeds (p=0.00). No difference in speed was found between YM and YF (p=0.59) or between EM and EF (p=0.95). The parameters extracted directly from the cyclogram allowed us to distinguish the studied groups according to age group (p<0.05), especially with the treadmill inclined at 5°, but it was not enough to determine gender (p&gt;0.51). CONCLUSION: The hypothesis was partially confirmed because parameters extracted from the hip-knee cyclograms could differentiate volunteers by age group but not gender.