mVEGAS – mobile smartphone-based spatiotemporal gait analysis in healthy and ataxic gait disorders

• Published in: Gait & posture 2022-09, Vol.97, p.80-85
• Main Authors: Ippisch, R., Jelusic, A., Bertram, J., Schniepp, R., Wuehr, M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Ataxia - diagnosis; Female; Gait; Gait Analysis; Gait assessment; Gait ataxia; Gait Ataxia - diagnosis; Humans; Inertial sensors; Reproducibility of Results; Smartphone; Smartphone camera; Spatio-Temporal Analysis; Walking; Wearable
• ISSN: 0966-6362; 1879-2219
• DOI: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2022.07.256

Quantitative gait assessment is increasingly applied in fall risk stratification, diagnosis, and disease monitoring of neuro-geriatric gait disorders. Its broad application, however, demands for low-cost and mobile solutions that facilitate high-quality assessment outside laboratory settings. The aim of this study was to present and evaluate the concurrent validity of a mobile and low-cost gait assessment tool (mVEGAS) that combines body-fixed inertial sensors and a smartphone-based video capture for spatiotemporal identification of gait sequences. Initially, we examined potential interferences of wearing mVEGAS with walking performance in a cohort of 20 young healthy individuals (31.1 ± 10.1 years; 8 females). Subsequently, we assessed the concurrent validity of mVEGAS as compared to a pressure-sensitive gait carpet (GAITRite) in a cohort of 26 healthy individuals (55.8 ± 14.3 years; 10 females) and 26 patients (55.7 ± 14.0; 14 females) with moderate to severe degrees of cerebellar gait ataxia. All participants were instructed to walk at preferred, slow, and fast walking speed and standard average and variability gait measures including velocity, stride length, stride time, base of support, swing and double support phase were examined for agreement between the two systems by absolute error and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). Wearing mVEGAS did only marginally interfere with normal walking behavior. mVEGAS-derived average and variability gait measures exhibited good to excellent concurrent validity in healthy individuals (ICCs ranging between 0.645 and 1.000) and patients with gait ataxia (ICCs ranging between 0.788 and 1.000) mVEGAS may facilitate high-quality and long-term gait monitoring in different non-specialized environments such as medical practices, nursing homes or community centers. •mVEGAS is a smartphone gait tool combining inertial sensors and video capture.•we examine the concurrent validity of mVEGAS compared to a gait carpet system.•mVEGAS yields excellent validity in healthy elderly and patients with gait ataxia.•mVEGAS enables high-quality gait analysis in different non-specialized environments.