Reliability of gait parameters in male and female healthy adults during self-paced treadmill-based walking

Background/Aims: The purpose of this study was to examine the intra-rater reliability of the Gait Real-time Analysis Interactive Laboratory (GRAIL) system during self-paced mode, in repeated gait analysis of healthy individuals. Methods: Ten healthy male (age: 35.4 ± 13.3 yr; BMI: 25.2 ± 4.3) and 10 healthy female (age: 41.1 ± 16.4 yr; BMI: 24.5 ± 2.6) participants walked on a split-belt, self-paced treadmill. Each participant completed two gait assessments separated by an average of 7±3 days. Key gait kinematic, kinetic and spatial-temporal parameters were analysed. The interclass correlation Coefficient (ICC), Standard Error of Measurement (SEM) and Minimum Detectable Change (MDC) were calculated to evaluate the reliability of these gait parameters. Findings: Results showed high repeatability of spatial temporal and excellent repeatability of kinematic and kinetic parameters in male and female groups. This is the first paper to evaluate the reliability of the GRAIL gait parameters for healthy females. Conclusion: The findings suggest that the GRAIL system in self-paced mode is a good instrument to evaluate gait parameters for females as well as males.