The Impact Of Short Perturbation-based Training On Gait

INTRODUCTION: The incidence of fall-related injuries in the occupational population is high, and that incidence is growing fast. The main reason for such falls is loss of balance following slips and trips, and improving gait dynamics is a main way to prevent falls. Among the different ways of gait training, perturbation-based training is identified as a potential method. PURPOSE: To investigate the effects of short perturbation-based training on gait in young, healthy adults. METHODS: Using a specialized treadmill, spatiotemporal gait parameters during walking at a self-selected speed were recorded from twenty healthy participants (11 females & 9 males; age 22.1 ± 3.5 yrs; BMI 21.4 ± 6.93 kgm-2) under two conditions: performing single-task (ST; only walking) and cognitive dual-task (CDT; walking and serial 7 s) before (PRE) and after (POST) perturbation-based gait training. The training consisted of three consecutive days of a daily 20-minute walk on the same treadmill, subjected to 40 unexpected, randomized perturbations in forward, backward, left, and right directions. Participants’ step length, stride length, and step width were separately analyzed using a two-way ANOVA (PRE and POST Vs ST and CDT). RESULTS: The analysis did not yield any significant differences in step length (p = 0.989) between ST (51.92 ± 7.83 cm) and CDT (51.74 ± 7.97 cm) or PRE (51.82 ± 8.41 cm) and POST (51.92 ± 7.83 cm) as well as in stride length (p = 0.976) between ST (104.35 ± 15.52 cm) and CDT (103.89 ± 15.94 cm) or PRE (104.09 ± 16.94 cm) and POST (104.15 ± 14.72 cm). Similarly, there were no significant differences in step width (p = 0.981) between ST (15.02 ± 4.54 cm) and CDT (15.95 ± 4.74 cm) or PRE (15.42 ± 4.30 cm) and POST (15.55 ± 4.97 cm). CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrate that short perturbation-based training does not change the gait parameters in young, healthy adults during ST or CDT. This finding shows that although perturbation-based training is a promising option for improving gait dynamics, its efficacy could be limited by the training duration. Future studies could focus on longer training durations, variable perturbation intensity/types, and varying populations, especially geriatric and clinical populations, to understand the possible benefits of perturbation-based training on gait.