Reference database of the gait cycle for young healthy Tunisian adults

Background. - Quantified gait analysis is a rising technology used increasingly to assess motor disorders. Normal reference data are required inorder to evaluate patients, but there are no reference data available for the Tunisian healthy population.Aim. - To assess the features of normal Tunisian gait pattern, and examine the intrinsic reliability of spatio-temporal, kinematic and kineticparameters within a new specific reference database. Methods. - Eighteen healthy active-young adults (age: 23.30 ± 2.54 years, height: 1.78 ± 0.04 m and, weight: 70.00 ± 4.80 kg) have participated tofive trials of step gait where the dominant lower limb were recorded. Two over the five trials were randomly selected to be further analyzed. Twenty-three spatio-temporal, kinematic and kinetic parameters determined from 3-dimensional gait analysis. The intrinsic reliability was examined foreach variable and our results were compared with those available in the literature.Results. - Twelve over 23 parameters have an excellent intrinsic reliability (P > 0.05, ICC > 0.9 and SEM < 5% of the grand mean). There aresimilarities with other studies (P < 0.05) but we noticed the existence of some specificity (the height of hip extension peak and the low cadence ofgait) that could characterize the Tunisian population. Conclusion. - A specific reference database of the gait cycle has been established for healthy Tunisian active-young adults and excellent inter-trialreliability may be observed for different variables.