Automated Detection of Gait Events and Travel Distance Using Waist-worn Accelerometers Across a Typical Range of Walking and Running Speeds


Topic:

Translational Research

Poster Number: S55

Author(s):

Erik Henricson, PhD, MPH, University of California, Davis, Albara Ah Ramli, PhD, University of California, Davis, Xin Liu, PhD, University of California, Davis, Craig McDonald, MD, UC Davis Health, Walk4Me Research Group, PhD MPH, University of California, Davis

Estimation of temporospatial clinical features of gait (CFs), such as step count and length, step duration, step frequency, gait speed, and distance traveled is an important component of community-based mobility evaluation using wearable accelerometers. However, accurate unsupervised computerized measurement of CFs of individuals with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) who have progressive loss of ambulatory mobility is difficult due to differences in patterns and magnitudes of acceleration across their range of attainable gait velocities. This paper proposes a novel calibration method to detect steps and to estimate stride lengths and travel distance using a combination of clinical observation, machine learning-based step detection, and regression-based stride length prediction that is highly accurate in children with DMD and typically developing controls (TDs) and regardless of the participant’s level of ability. Fifteen children with DMD and 15 TDs underwent supervised clinical testing across a range of gait speeds using 10 or 25m run/walk (10MRW, 25MRW), 100m run/walk (100MRW), 6-minute walk (6MWT) and free-walk (FW) evaluations while wearing a mobile phone-based accelerometer at the waist near the body’s center of mass. Following calibration by a trained clinical evaluator, CFs were extracted from the accelerometer data using a multi-step machine learning-based process and results were compared to ground-truth observation data. Model predictions vs. observed values for step counts, distance traveled, and step length showed a strong correlation (Pearson’s r = -0.9929 to 0.9986, p<0.0001). The estimates demonstrated a mean (SD) percentage error of 1.49% (7.04%) for step counts, 1.18% (9.91%) for distance traveled, and 0.37% (7.52%) for step length compared to ground truth observations for the combined 6MWT, 100MRW, and FW tasks. Our study findings indicate that a single, waist-worn accelerometer calibrated to an individual’s stride characteristics using our methods accurately measures CFs and estimates travel distances across a common range of gait speeds in both DMD and TD peers.