• Sander van Hoeve, Bernard Leenstra, Paul Willems, Martijn Poeze, and Kenneth Meijer.
• Department of Surgery, Division of Trauma Surgery Department of Movement Sciences, Maastricht University Medical Center NUTRIM, School for Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
• Medicine (Baltimore). 2017 Sep 1; 96 (35): e7907.

BackgroundThe effects of age and speed on foot and ankle kinematics in gait studies using foot models are not fully understood, whereas this can have significant influence. We analyzed these variables with the 4-segment Oxford foot model.MethodsTwenty-one healthy subjects (aged 20-65 years) were recruited for gait analysis. The effect of speed on foot and ankle kinematics was assessed by comparing results during slow walking and fast walking. To assess the effect of age, a group of 13 healthy young adults (aged 20-24 years) were compared with a group of 8 older adults (aged 53-65 years). Also, the interaction between age and speed was analyzed.ResultsRegarding speed, there was a significant difference between forefoot/hindfoot motion in the sagittal plane (flexion/extension) during both loading- and push-off phase (P = .004, P < .001). Between hindfoot/tibia, there was a significant difference for all parameters except for motion in the sagittal plane (flexion/extension) during push-off phase (P = .5). Age did not significantly influence kinematics. There was no interaction between age and speed.ConclusionOur analysis found that speed significantly influenced the kinematic outcome parameters. This was more pronounced in the ankle joint. In contrast, no significant differences were found between younger and older healthy subjects.

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