Dependences of ground reaction force parameters on habitual walking speed in hemiparetic subjects

Dependences of vertical and horizontal ground reaction force parameters on habitual walking speed were studied in samples of 144 and 23 hemiparetic stroke patients admitted to our rehabilitation unit. Statistical correlations across subjects were not significant for the normalized vertical force peaks and for the maximum of the mediolateral shear force. Correlations between the vertical loading and deloading rates, as well as the anteriorposterior braking and propulsive force peaks, and translational impulse were substantial and significant across subjects, with degrees of predictability between 46 and 83% for the dependent variables on the basis of speed × body mass. After a 4-week period of comprehensive rehabilitation according to the Bobath concept (neurodevelopmental technique), changes in symmetry parameters were, for all practical concerns, uncorrelated to changes in spontaneous walking speed. It is concluded that measurement of gait symmetry may provide additional, unredundant information about therapeutic effects that cannot be gained by measurement of walking speed alone. It remains a conceptual problem whether parameters of symmetry or the functional change in walking speed should be regarded as more important for the assessment of improvement or deterioration.