A pilot observational study of gait changes over time before and after an unplanned hospital visit in long-term care residents with dementia.

Background: Older adults with dementia living in long-term care (LTC) have high rates of hospitalization. Two common causes of unplanned hospital visits for LTC residents are deterioration in health status and falls. Early detection of health deterioration or increasing falls risk may present an opportunity to intervene and prevent hospitalization.

The Toronto older adults gait archive: video and 3D inertial motion capture data of older adults' walking.

We introduce the Toronto Older Adults Gait Archive, a gait dataset of 14 older adults containing 2D video recordings, and 2D (video pose tracking algorithms) and 3D (inertial motion capture) joint locations of the lower body. Participants walked for 60 seconds. We also collected participants' scores on four clinical assessments of gait and balance, namely the Tinneti performance-oriented mobility assessment (POMA-gait and -balance), the Berg balance scale (BBS), and the timed-up-and-go (TUG).

Indoor Location Data for Tracking Human Behaviours: A Scoping Review.

Real-time location systems (RTLS) record locations of individuals over time and are valuable sources of spatiotemporal data that can be used to understand patterns of human behaviour. Location data are used in a wide breadth of applications, from locating individuals to contact tracing or monitoring health markers. To support the use of RTLS in many applications, the varied ways location data can describe patterns of human behaviour should be examined.

Gait changes over time in hospitalized older adults with advanced dementia: Predictors of mobility change.

People with dementia are at risk of mobility decline. In this study, we measured changes in quantitative gait measures over a maximum 10-week period during the course of a psychogeriatric admission in older adults with dementia, with the aims to describe mobility changes over the duration of the admission, and to determine which factors were associated with this change. Fifty-four individuals admitted to a specialized dementia inpatient unit participated in this study.

Concurrent validity of human pose tracking in video for measuring gait parameters in older adults: a preliminary analysis with multiple trackers, viewing angles, and walking directions.

Background: Many of the available gait monitoring technologies are expensive, require specialized expertise, are time consuming to use, and are not widely available for clinical use. The advent of video-based pose tracking provides an opportunity for inexpensive automated analysis of human walking in older adults using video cameras. However, there is a need to validate gait parameters calculated by these algorithms against gold standard methods for measuring human gait data in this population.

A systematic review of center of pressure measures to quantify gait changes in older adults.

Measures of gait center of pressure (COP) can be recorded using simple available technologies in clinical settings and thus can be used to characterize gait quality in older adults and its relationship to falls. The aim of this systematic review was to investigate the association between measures of gait COP and aging and falls. A comprehensive search of electronic databases including MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CINAHL (EBSCO), Ageline (EBSCO) and Scopus was performed.

Effect of Different Placement of Heel Rockers on Lower-Limb Joint Biomechanics in Healthy Individuals.

Background: Rocker shoes are commonly prescribed to healthy and pathologic populations to decrease stress on the lower limbs. An optimal rocker shoe design must consider both toe and heel rockers. Heel rockers are as effective as toe rockers in relieving foot plantar pressures.

Influence of heel design in an orthopedic shoe on ground reaction forces during walking.

Background: One of the treatments prescribed for musculoskeletal patients is orthopedic shoe. The use of an orthopedic shoe is thought to produce a more typical ground reactive force pattern.

Objectives: This study was designed to determine the influence of three heel designs of an orthopedic shoe on the ground reaction forces during walking in healthy subjects.

Reliability of ultrasound thickness measurement of the abdominal muscles during clinical isometric endurance tests.

The study was designed to evaluate the intra-examiner reliability of ultrasound (US) thickness measurement of abdominal muscles activity when supine lying and during two isometric endurance tests in subjects with and without Low back pain (LBP). A total of 19 women (9 with LBP, 10 without LBP) participated in the study. Within-day reliability of the US thickness measurements at supine lying and the two isometric endurance tests were assessed in all subjects.

An alternative approach to describing agility in sports through establishment of a relationship between velocity and radius of curvature.

Agility is an essential part of many athletic activities. Currently, agility drill duration is the sole criterion used for evaluation of agility performance. The relationship between drill duration and factors such as acceleration, deceleration and change of direction, however, has not been fully explored.

The effect of patellofemoral bracing on walking in individuals with patellofemoral pain syndrome.

Background: Although knee braces are used by individuals with patellofemoral pain syndrome, the effect of patellofemoral bracing on knee flexion during walking has not been elucidated.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of patellofemoral bracing on sagittal plane knee joint kinematics and temporal spatial parameters during walking in individuals with patellofemoral pain syndrome.

Study Design: Quasi-experimental.