Shaw, T,¹ Reid, S,¹ Haugh, L,² Ribera, W;² Fletcher Allen Health Care¹ and University of Vermont,² Burlington, VT. Anthony.shaw@vtmednet.org.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to test the validity and interrater reliability of a new, internet-based temporal gait assessment tool. BACKGROUND: Gait assessment is one of the cornerstones of physical therapy evaluation. A variety of assessment tools does exist, ranging from observation to complete motion analysis labs, but there is still a need for an inexpensive, valid and reliable clinical tool that can give an immediate quantitative summary of relevant gait measures. The Shaw Gait Assessment Tool (SGAT) is available, at no cost, to anyone with internet access and a keyboard. It calculates, speed, cadence, step length and symmetry in English and metric units, and compares results to gender and age based norms. New users can learn the system via an instructional module. SUBJECTS: 16 healthy men and women aged 23-58 years (mean = 38.1) participated in the study. METHODS: Each subject performed two consecutive walks "at a comfortable pace" on a 20-foot walkway. A video camera from the Elite Motion Analysis System™ filmed reflective markers, which were attached to the subjects' shoes, and these provided the standard measures. Simultaneously four raters recorded each walk using laptop computers and the SGAT. ANALYSIS: The Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC) for interrater reliability were obtained through two-way analyses of variance with SAS software. We assessed validity through the agreement of the raters with the standard, in terms of bias and 95% limits of agreement and with Pearson correlations. RESULTS: The ICCs for interrater reliability were .82 for step length, .86 for cadence and .94 for speed, but only .24 for symmetry. In comparing the raters to the standard for bias, with a multiple comparison adjustment, there were no significant differences for speed or symmetry. One rater was below the standard for step length, while all 4 raters were higher than the standard for cadence. Pearson correlation coefficients between each of the raters and the standard ranged from .92-.95 for speed, .85-.97 for cadence and .87-.92 for step length. Correlations for symmetry however ranged from -.43 to .18. CONCLUSIONS: The SGAT appears to be a reliable and valid tool for clinical purposes in measuring the temporal gait parameters of speed, step length and cadence, but not of symmetry, in a healthy adult population. FUNDING SOURCE: Associates in Physical and Occupational Therapy and Fletcher Allen Health Care.

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