A MULTI-SEGMENTED APPROACH TO THE QUANTIFICATION OF TRUNK MOVEMENT DURING GAIT

Abstract

Typical gait analyses commonly define the trunk as a single rigid segment, which overlooks its inter-segmental motion. The current study examined the validity and reliability of a multi-segmented trunk marker set and the quantification of trunk motion during gait. A total of 10 young subjects were tested on two different days using identical procedures which incorporated a 22-marker set to define 7 trunk segments. Validity was evaluated by comparing results to a previous protocol. Reliability was assessed with the range of motion (ROM), coefficient of multiple correlation (CMC) and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The multi-segmented trunk marker set was able to reveal different inter-segmental movement patterns. During gait, ROM reliability was approximately 92%, and within-day CMC displayed moderate to strong reliabilities while between-day CMC data had moderately weak to moderately strong associations of the multi-segmented angle waveform trajectories. Reliability of the peak angles, assessed by ICC ranged from poor to almost perfect. The findings provide trends that suggest the incorporation of a multi-segmented trunk marker set could add a useful assessment to gait analysis.