• Braveena K Santhiranayagam, W A Sparrow, Lai Daniel T H DTH Institute of Sport, Exercise and Active Living, Victoria University, Melbourne, Victoria 8001, Australia; College of Engineering & Science, Victoria Un, and Rezaul K Begg.
• Institute of Sport, Exercise and Active Living, Victoria University, Melbourne, Victoria 8001, Australia; College of Sport & Exercise Science, Victoria University, Melbourne, Victoria 8001, Australia. Electronic address: braveena.santhiranayagam@live.vu.edu.au.
• Gait Posture. 2017 Mar 1; 53: 73-79.

AbstractMinimum-toe-clearance (MTC) above the walking surface is a critical representation of toe-trajectory control due to its association with tripping risk. Not all gait cycles exhibit a clearly defined MTC within the swing phase but there have been few previous accounts of the biomechanical characteristics of non-MTC gait cycles. The present report investigated the within-subject non-MTC gait cycle characteristics of 15 older adults (mean 73.1 years) and 15 young controls (mean 26.1 years). Participants performed the following tasks on a motorized treadmill: preferred speed walking, dual task walking (carrying a glass of water) and a dual-task speed-matched control. Toe position-time coordinates were acquired using a 3 dimensional motion capture system. When MTC was present, toe height at MTC (MTCheight) was extracted. The proportion of non-MTC gait cycles was computed for the age groups and individuals. For non-MTC gait cycles an 'indicative' toe height at the individual's average swing phase time (MTCtime) for observed MTC cycles was averaged across multiple non-MTC gait cycles. In preferred-speed walking Young demonstrated 2.9% non-MTC gait cycles and Older 18.7%. In constrained walking conditions both groups increased non-MTC gait cycles and some older adults revealed over 90%, confirming non-MTC gait cycles as an ageing-related phenomenon in lower limb trajectory control. For all participants median indicative toe-height on non-MTC gait cycles was greater than median MTCheight. This result suggests that eliminating the biomechanically hazardous MTC event by adopting more of the higher-clearance non-MTC gait cycles, is adaptive in reducing the likelihood of toe-ground contact.Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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