A clinical method of quantitative gait analysis. Suggestion from the field.

Quantitative methods of gait analysis are needed for documenting patient progress and for doing clinical research. Abnormal measures of velocity, step length, step width, stride length, and cadence have been shown to be important indicators of gait dysfunction." Improvements in function are paralleled by improvements in these measures. Sophisticated electronic methods are the simplest and most accurate methods of gait analysis; however, they are not usually available to the clinician. These methods are expensive and are found in only a few locomotion laboratories. This paper describes a clinical method of quantitative gait analysis, different from the clinical methods that have been described in the literature, 6 that can be used in any clinical setting. This method can be used to quantify stride length, step length, step width, cadence, and velocity of walking, and it requires less equipment and may be simpler to use than other clinical methods. Also, this method provides a way of teaching objective gait analysis to physical therapy students.