Increases in overground gait speed with body weight support in people post-stroke

Jamie K. Burgess, Gwendolyn Weibel, David A. Brown

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

We studied the effect of body weight support on self-selected overground walking speed in both healthy elderly subjects and subjects post-stroke using the KineAssist, a novel robotic gait and balance device. Body weight support is provided by the robot via a closed-loop system that provides support about the subject's estimated center of mass. Body weight support was tested at 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% of the subject's weight. We found that selfselected walking speed decreased with greater levels of body weight support for the healthy elderly subjects. However, the subjects post stroke showed an average increase of 18% in self-selected walking speed at some level of body weight support compared with no body weight support while walking in the KineAssist. Gait speed increases corresponded to an increase in step length. There appears to be a benefit to overground walking speed when providing a small percentage of body weight support for people post-stroke.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication2009 IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, ICORR 2009
Pages401-406
Number of pages6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009
Externally publishedYes
Event2009 IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, ICORR 2009 - Kyoto, Japan
Duration: Jun 23 2009Jun 26 2009

Publication series

Name2009 IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, ICORR 2009

Conference

Conference2009 IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, ICORR 2009
Country/TerritoryJapan
CityKyoto
Period6/23/096/26/09

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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