Mechanics of overground and treadmill walking in children

Abstract : Motor impairments associated with cerebral palsy (CP) induce abnormal gait in children. The improvement of walking is an essential objective and the use of treadmill for walking analysis and training may offer several advantages. However, a controversy still exists regarding the similarity between treadmill and overground walking. The aim of this study was to compare the mechanics of these two types of gait modalities at standard and preferred walking speeds in hemiplegic cerebral palsy (HCP) and typically developing (TD) children matched on age, height and body mass.