Assessment of gait changes during walking using a smartphone text message

Abstract

Background: Previous study reported that, walking while texting on smartphone is having bad effect on gait balance, speed of gait and distance of step. Aim: The purpose of this study was to investigate gender differences in the angle of lower limbs during walking while texting. Materials and Methods: Study was done by cross sectional study design. 15 males and females who are aged between 18 and 21, voluntarily participated in the study. Each participation walked in two types of gait which, were walking ordinarily and while texting in 7 meter distance. Each subject performed 4times. We recorded swing phase of walking using high speed camera (casio exilim). Furthermore, swing phase was divided into 3 moment to analyze lower extremity angle. Image J program used to calculate the flexion angle of hip, knee and, ankle. Statistical analyze was carried out using SPSS-21 software, and the two types of gait and speed of all participants were compared by Wilcoxon signed rank test. Results: The mean age of the participants was 19.17±1.21 years old, the mean height was 167.03±7.88 cm, the mean body weight was 59.85±9.84 kg, and, the mean body mass index was 21.32±2.21 kg/m2. Compared to ordinary walking, walking with messaging was shown significantly differences. The hip flexion angle increased to 6.460 (p=0.038), the knee flexion angle increased to 60.010 (p=0.001), and the ankle flexion angle decreased to 36.530 (p=0.000) when the foot is moving forward from the ground. The knee flexion angle significantly decreased to 60.010 (p=0.002) at the moment of foot are highest lifted from the ground. In addition, the moment of heel contact on the ground, the hip flexion angle and knee flexion angle significantly decreased to 21.740 (p=0.001), and 26.970 (p=0.013) respectively. The mean speed of all participants during normal walking was 0.84 m/sec, while the mean speed of walking while texting on the phone increased to 1.15 m/sec. Conclusion: Although this study was conducted on flat surface, as the participant’s walking speed slowed down, the range of motion of the lower limbs was decreased, and the flexion angle of the lower limbs was decreased which caused the height of lifted from the ground to maintain trunk stability.