Assessment of spatiotemporal characteristics of gait, trough the Phyphox® app: a case series

Background: Spatiotemporal characteristics from human locomotion can provide effective clinical metrics to assess motor control and brain function. This case report aims to assess the temporal structure of variability in stride-to-stride time and calculated the intrinsic fractal frame that is hidden below the repetitive structure of physiological gait through the “Phyphox” app. This is an innovative study from the perspective of analyzing gait variables through a mobile app. Case presentation: Five older adults Caucasian (3 women; age = 73 ± 10,5 years; body mass = 62,2 ± 15,1 kg; height = 1,56 ± 0,1 m; 2 men; age = 75,5 ± 7,8 years; body mass = 86,3 ± 18,0 kg; height = 1,77 ± 0,1 m) participated in this study. Five participants were asked to walk with a natural cadence, two of the participants presented a value greater than 80 step’s/minute (81.14 ± 0.01; 86.67 ± 0.02); and the others had values between 55 and 65 step’s/minute (55.20 ± 0.02; 55.78 ± 0.05; 61.02 ± 0.05). Regarding the coefficient of variation, only one participant presented 10.08%. For the total number of steps, three of the participants had values greater than 1000 steps. The variability of these stride-to-stride time has been quantified through detrended fluctuation analysis; one participant presented a value above 1. Conclusions: This study provides evidence that a smartphone might provide a valid measure to assess the spatiotemporal characteristics of gait.