Abstract
Assessment of walking energy efficiency is potentially useful for objectively quantifying gait efficiency; however, issues regarding methodology, day-to-day variability, inter subject variability (age and size differences) and clinical relevance prevents the assessment of walking energy efficiency from being used as a standard assessment tool. Volume of oxygen (VO2) and heart rate were assessed to determine the intra-subject (day-to-day) variability, the impact of age and body parameters and the clinical relevance of gross cost, Net non-dimensional Cost (NNcost) and Energy Efficiency Index (EEI) in able-bodied individuals. Gross cost demonstrated the least amount of day-to-day variability, in comparison to NNcost and EEI. Age and body parameters contributed more to the variability in gross cost than NNcost and EEI. Only net non-dimensional oxygen consumption was related to the velocity of walking. EEI did not correlate with direct measures of oxygen cost. The results from this study demonstrate that utilization of NNcost, a measure that subtracts resting oxygen consumption from walking oxygen consumption and scales for body parameters, is preferable to the traditional measures for comparing individuals of different ages and sizes and is related to the speed that the individual walks.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 592-596 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Gait and Posture |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 2009 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors would like to thank the participants in this study for their time and efforts and the Shriners Hospitals for Children for funding this research, Grant 8570.
Keywords
- Able-bodied
- Energy efficiency measures
- Gait
- Normalization