Shaw Gait Assessment Tool

Validity and Reliability of an Internet-based Temporal Gait Assessment Tool with Healthy Adults: A Pilot Study

Sheila Reid PT MS, Fletcher Allen Health Care, Burlington, VT
Anthony Shaw PT, Fletcher Allen Health Care, Burlington, VT
Larry D Haugh PhD, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Vermont

Objectives: To assess, in healthy adults, validity and inter and intra rater reliability of the internet-based Shaw Gait Assessment (SGA).

Design: Concurrent test retest reliability and validity study with study participants, four raters and the Elite Motion Analysis SystemTM.

Setting: Motion analysis laboratory in the physical therapy department at the University of Vermont.

Participants: Convenience sample of sixteen healthy men and women aged 28-53 years

Intervention: Each subject performed two consecutive walks "at a comfortable pace" on a 20-foot walkway. A video camera from the Elite Motion Analysis SystemTM filmed reflective markers, which were attached to the subjects' shoes, and these provided the criterion standard. Simultaneously four raters recorded each walk using the SGA, which had been loaded on laptop computers.

Main Outcome Measures: Pearson correlation coefficients, limits of agreement and coefficients of variation for validity of the tool; Intraclass Correlation Coefficients for inter and intrarater reliability.

Results: Pearson product correlation coefficients between each of the raters and the standard ranged from .92-.95 for speed, .85-.97 for cadence, .87-.92 for step length, .61-.84 for left advance limb time and .68-.83 for right advance limb time. Pooled coefficients of variation were well below 8% for all raters and all variables. Pooled ICCs for intrarater reliability were .89 for speed, .9 for cadence, .84 for step length, .76 for left limb advance time and .84 for right limb advance time. Interrater ICCs were .89 for speed, .82 for cadence, .76 for step length, .66 for left limb advance time and .81 for right limb advance time.

Conclusions: The Shaw Gait Assessment is a valid and reliable tool for several key temporal measures of gait analysis in a healthy adult population.

Key Words: Gait, Reproducibility of results, Adult

This research was presented by Tony Shaw on June 20th at the annual meeting of the American Physical Therapy Association in Washington, DC

For further information, contact sheila.reid@vtmednet.org