Walking Balance Control in Different Real-World Settings: Individual-, Task-, and Environment-Based Influences
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background Maintaining balance while walking in different settings is important for independent living and quality of life. The influence of setting on walking balance control is yet to be established and may contribute new information regarding reported changes to spatiotemporal gait parameters between settings. Walking in different settings is likely impacted by complex interactions between characteristics of individual (e.g., sex, body height, body mass), tasks (e.g., speed), and the environment (e.g., pathway width) that are currently not well understood. Purpose To characterize the effects of individual, task, and environment characteristics on walking balance control in different settings for young adults. A portable inertial and magnetic measurement unit (IMMU) based motion capture system was used to examine walking balance control in different settings. Methods and results Study 1: This study examined the effects of setting and sex on balance control during walking at different speeds in young adults. Forty-two adults (21 male (23 ± 4 years), 21 female (24 ± 5 years)) completed overground walking trials in four settings: laboratory (10 m), hallway, indoor open, and outdoor pathway settings (all 20 m in length) at three speeds (slow, preferred, fast). Significant setting by speed interactions (p < .001) were present for medial-lateral (ML) and anterior-posterior (AP) total body angular momentum range (HML range and HAP range) and centre of mass time to boundary (COMTTB). HML range was greater in the laboratory and hallway compared to the indoor open and outdoor pathway setting for slow speed only. HAP range and COMTTB had lower values in the outdoor pathway compared to all indoor settings at slow and preferred speeds. COMTTB had lower values in the indoor open setting compared to the laboratory and hallway at preferred speeds. Differences in HAP range and COMTTB between settings were more pronounced at the slow speed condition. Across setting and speed conditions, HML range was greater for males compared to females. Study 2: This study examined the impact of setting and speed condition on the variance explained by body height and body mass after controlling for stride velocity and sex. Seventy-seven adults (36 male (24 ± 4 years), 41 female (24 ± 5 years)) completed 20 m overground walking trials in a hallway and an open setting at three speeds (slow, preferred, fast). For all walking outcomes, the variance explained by body height and body mass differed between settings by less than the amount of variance needed for statistical significance at all speed conditions. Body height explained a significant amount of variance in COMTTB, stride length normalized to body height (SLN), and cadence. Body mass explained a significant amount of variance in HML range, COMTTB, and cadence. Study 3: This study examined the effects of different lateral pathway constraints and sex on walking in young adults. Thirty-eight adults (17 male (25 ± 3 years), 21 female (24 ± 4 years)) completed overground walking trials in settings with different lateral constraints: open (no constraints), open pathway (1.9 m pathway width defined by lines on the floor), and hallway (1.9 m pathway width defined by walls). In each setting, 20 m trials were completed at three speeds (slow, preferred, fast). SLN was longer in the open compared to the open pathway setting. Stride velocity, SLN, and cadence increased from slow to preferred to fast speed conditions. Double support phase percentage (%DS), HML range, HAP range, and COMTTB decreased from slow to preferred to fast speed conditions. Across settings and at slow speeds, females had larger SLN and lower %DS compared to males. Females had higher cadence compared to males across setting and speed conditions. COMTTB was longer for males compared to females across setting and speed conditions. Conclusion Results from all three studies collectively highlight the importance of considering biological sex for accurate and inclusive walking balance control assessments. Study 1 results indicate that setting characteristics, such as walkway length and the outdoor environment, may be important to consider with walking balance control assessments. The results of Study 2 imply that: sex, body height, and body mass may need to be considered in walking assessments for accurate and generalizable interpretations; and the influence of sex, body height, and body mass on walking could be similar between settings with unobstructed walkways. Results of Study 3 suggest that walking behaviour in wide hallways may be comparable to walking behaviour in large indoor open settings.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".