The purpose of this study was to examine the concurrent validity of the Personal Activity Monitor (PAM) accelerometer relative to the Actigraph accelerometer using oxygen consumption as a reference, and to assess the test-retest reliability of the PAM. Thirty-two fit, normal weight adults (aged 21-54) performed two activities, treadmill walking and stair walking, while wearing the PAM, the Acti...

[Purpose] To investigate the effects of a 30-day rehabilitation program using a slant board on walking function in post-stroke hemiparetic patients. [Subjects and Methods] Six hemiparetic patients with gait disturbance were studied. The patients were instructed to perform a home-based rehabilitation program using a slant board, thrice daily for 30 days, the exercise included standing on the sla...

BACKGROUND Oxygen desaturation during walking can have important consequence on prognosis of COPD patients. However, a standard 6-min walk test (6MWT), useful in detecting desaturation in COPD patients, can be difficult to execute in some settings of COPD management, as in the community healthcare service. We evaluated a new scoring system for the risk of oxygen desaturation during walking in C...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to assess participants' ability to perform tasks requiring attention, short term memory, and simple motor skill while sitting, standing or walking at an active workstation. METHODS Fifty participants completed the Stroop Color Word test (SCWT), Auditory Consonant Trigram test (ACTT), and Digital Finger Tapping test (DFTT) while sitting, standing and wa...

PURPOSE Gait speed is an important objective values associated with several health-related outcomes including functional mobility in aging people. However, walking test methodologies and descriptions are not standardized considering specific aims of research. This study examine the reliability and validity of gait speed measured at various distances and paces in elderly Koreans. METHODS Fifty...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a total body strength training program on oxygen uptake (VO2), heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and rate pressure product (RPP) during a submaximal walk and a weight-loaded walking test in healthy women 60-77 years old. METHODS The submaximal walk (2 mph and 3.5% grade) took place during stage 3 of a graded exercis...

BACKGROUND The optimal way of assessing the impact of pulmonary rehabilitation on functional status in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is currently unknown. The minimal clinically important difference for the constant work rate cycling exercise test also needs to be investigated to facilitate its interpretation. A study was undertaken to evaluate the changes in the 6-min walking te...

We propose an analog CMOS circuit for developing a biologically-inspired locomotion controller for a quadruped walking robot. The proposed circuit is based on the biological neural network, called the central pattern generator (CPG), that can generate rhythmic movements for locomotion of animals, such as walking, running, swimming, and flying. We constructed a CPG model from the WilsonCowan neu...

OBJECTIVES To investigate: (i) the intra-rater, inter-rater and test-retest reliabilities of completion times and step counts on the Standardized Walking Obstacle Course test (SWOC); (ii) correlations between SWOC scores and stroke-specific impairments; (iii) the cut-off SWOC completion times and step counts for distinguishing differences in obstacle negotiation ability in people with chronic s...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Walking ability poststroke is commonly assessed using gait speed categories developed by Perry et al. The purpose of this study was to reexamine factors that predict home and community ambulators determined from real-world walking activity data using activity monitors. METHODS Secondary analyses of real-world walking activity from 2 stroke trials. Home (100-2499 steps/d...