Walking Stride Rate Patterns in Children and Youth

In Brief Purpose: To describe walking activity patterns in youth who are typically developing (TD) using a novel analysis of stride data and compare to youth with cerebral palsy (CP) and arthrogryposis (AR). Method: Stride rate curves were developed from 5 days of StepWatch data for 428 youth ages 2 to 16 years who were TD. Results: Patterns of stride rates changed with age in the TD group (P = .03 to < .001). Inactivity varied with age (P < .001); peak stride rate decreased with age (P < .001). Curves were stable over a 2-week time frame (P = .38 to .95). Youth with CP and AR have lower stride rate patterns (P = .04 to .001). Conclusion: This is the first documentation of pediatric stride-rate patterns within the context of daily life. Including peak stride rates and levels of walking activity, this single visual format has potential clinical and research applications. A novel method of analysis was used to characterize the stride rate of youth who are typically developing and compare those findings to similar data collected on youth with cerebral palsy and arthrogryposis. The authors propose using such analyses to document activity patterns in youth.