A comparison of gait characteristics between Korean and Western people for establishing Korean gait reference data

Abstract It is important to analyze the characteristics of normal gait in clinical and biomechanical aspects. Although gait characteristics can be varied by anthropometric, racial and cultural factors, gait studies have primarily been undertaken in Western countries. The present study conducted a gait analysis for Korean people and compared the gait characteristics with those of Western people. A total of 32 Koreans subjects (20 males and 12 females) participated in the gait experiment and their spatio-temporal and kinematic/kinetic characteristics were analyzed. The comparison of the gait characteristics between Korean and Western people revealed that the stride length and walking speed of Korean subjects were significantly lower than those observed in Western studies by 7–25% and 14–42%, respectively. The knee abduction moment of the Korean subjects was larger than those of Western people, while the other moments (hip moment in the sagittal and frontal plane, knee and ankle moment in the sagittal plane) were smaller than those of Western people. There were also differences in ranges of motion between gait studies; however, most motion patterns and excursions were similar. Relevance to industry Gait reference data are important to determine the nature and severity of gait disturbances in injured individuals and to evaluate the effect of clinical treatment. The unique gait characteristics of Koreans identified in the present study will provide valuable information on gait parameters for the Korean population.

[1]  B. Auvinet,et al.  Reference data for normal subjects obtained with an accelerometric device. , 2002, Gait & posture.

[2]  O. Kwon,et al.  Gender differences in three dimensional gait analysis data from 98 healthy Korean adults. , 2004, Clinical biomechanics.

[3]  S C Wearing,et al.  The effect of visual targeting on ground reaction force and temporospatial parameters of gait. , 2000, Clinical biomechanics.

[4]  A. Cappozzo,et al.  Pelvis and lower limb anatomical landmark calibration precision and its propagation to bone geometry and joint angles , 1999, Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing.

[5]  A. Leardini,et al.  Data management in gait analysis for clinical applications. , 1998, Clinical biomechanics.

[6]  M R Pierrynowski,et al.  Enhancing the ability of gait analyses to differentiate between groups: scaling gait data to body size. , 2001, Gait & posture.

[7]  Debra E Hurwitz,et al.  Normalization of joint moments during gait: a comparison of two techniques. , 2003, Journal of biomechanics.

[8]  L. Schutte,et al.  An index for quantifying deviations from normal gait. , 2000, Gait & posture.

[9]  M P Kadaba,et al.  Measurement of lower extremity kinematics during level walking , 1990, Journal of orthopaedic research : official publication of the Orthopaedic Research Society.

[10]  R. B. Davis.  Reflections on clinical gait analysis. , 1997, Journal of electromyography and kinesiology : official journal of the International Society of Electrophysiological Kinesiology.

[11]  T P Andriacchi,et al.  Studies of human locomotion: past, present and future. , 2000, Journal of biomechanics.