Dependence of gait parameters on height in typically developing children

In clinical gait analysis is fundamental to have access to normative data, to be used as a reference in the interpretation of pathological walking. In a paediatric population this may be complicated by the dependence of gait parameters on child growth. The aim of this work is to provide the correlations of spatial-temporal gait parameters with children´s height. We obtained the regression lines of cadence, double support, and gait phases, with respect to height, from a sample of 85 normally typically developing children aged 6 to 11. Our analysis of gait phases was not limited to the traditional analysis of stance and swing, but rather focused on the sub-phases of stance - heel contact, flat foot contact, push off - which proved to be an innovative approach to gait analysis. Heel contact decreased, flat foot contact increased and push off remained essentially unchanged with respect to children´s height. These results may be useful in the interpretation of gait data in developing children, and the regression lines obtained may be used to normalize their gait parameters.