Effect of Head Turn and Floor Condition on Gait Parameters in Elderly Adults

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the effects of head turn and surface conditions on gait parameters in elderly adults.Methods: Twenty community-dwelling adults aged 60 years or older from City D participated in the study.Gait parameters were assessed using a wearable gait analysis system (Legsys; BioSensics, USA).Each participant performed two gait taskshead-oriented gait and head-turn gait-on two surfaces: a firm surface and a foam surface.The four resulting gait conditions were administered in a randomized order.Participants completed one familiarization trial prior to testing, and the mean of three subsequent trials was used for analysis.A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to evaluate the effects of head turn and surface condition on gait parameters, with the statistical significance set at = 0.05.Results: A significant main effect of head turn was observed for two gait parameters.Compared with the head-oriented gait, the head-turn gait resulted in a significantly shorter stride length according to the height ratio and a slower stride velocity (p < 0.05). Conclusion:The findings indicate that a head turn during gait alters key gait parameters-specifically, stride length and stride velocity-in elderly adults.These results suggest that head movement may impose additional challenges to gait stability in elderly adults.