Peak Weight Acceptance, Mid Stance Trough, and Peak Push-Off Force Symmetry Are Decreased in Older Adults Compared With Young Adults.

Gait abnormalities affect an individual's ability to navigate the world independently and occur in 10% of older adults. Examining age-related gait symmetry in nonlaboratory environments is necessary for understanding mobility limitations in older adults. This study examined gait symmetry differences between older and younger adults using in-shoe force sensors.

Movement variability and limb loading symmetry during simulated daily functional tasks.

Movement variability describes an individual's capacity to repeatedly perform motor skills and provides better understanding of coordination during a task. The purpose of this research was to assess the impact that task type and sex assigned at birth have on movement variability and load symmetry in healthy younger adults. It was hypothesized that the between trial variability of peak impact force and average loading rate would not differ between sexes or between tasks (level walking, stair ascent, stair descent, and sit-to-stand) and that load symmetry would not differ between the four tasks for an individual participant using a level of significance of α = 0.

Patients with unilateral ankle arthritis have decreased discrete and time-series limb symmetry compared to healthy controls.

Patients with ankle arthritis (AA) have side-to-side limb differences at the ankle and in spatiotemporal measures; however, the degree of symmetry between limbs has not been compared to a healthy population. The purpose of this study was to determine differences in limb symmetry during walking for discrete and time-series measures when comparing patients with unilateral AA to healthy participants. Thirty-seven AA and 37 healthy participants were age, gender, and body mass index matched.