Immediate Effects of the Honda Walking Assist on Spatiotemporal Gait Characteristics in Older Adults

Abstract

We compared changes in spatiotemporal gait parameters of 11 healthy older adults (mean age: 88.6 years) over 3 conditions of walking with the Honda Walking Assist (HWA), a hip-assistive exoskeleton. Differences in 14 gait parameters between (1) normal overground walking, (2) walking with a nonassisting HWA, and (3) optimally assisting HWA were analyzed using Friedman and Wilcoxon signed rank tests. Significant differences depending on type of assistance were found for 9 parameters. None persisted following Bonferroni corrections. Single-session individualized HWA assistance does not induce immediate changes in gait parameters. This does not contradict the potential of multiple training sessions with the HWA.