Identification of gait patterns in walking with crutches through the selection of significant spatio-temporal parameters

Forearm crutches are one of the most accepted aids in rehabilitation for walking. The improper use of crutches may prolong the rehabilitation period and cause further limb damage or pain. However, it is possible to tackle this issue by using instrumented crutches that provide a quantitative gait analysis of the users. In addition, the study of different aspects of crutch walking could assist clinicians in choosing the optimum crutch gait pattern for individuals and instruct them to use the aids correctly. Measurements from the crutches are influenced by the performed gait pattern, determined by the legs and arms’ sequence of movement. Since different parameters can describe gait, this paper aims to identify four gait patterns in walking with crutches through a reliable selection of gait parameters. In this study, we collected data from twenty healthy volunteers performing four gait patterns to reach this goal. First, we segmented the gait sequence in periodic cycles to detect two main phases, swing and stance. Then, we calculated different parameters for each gait walking pattern. Subsequently, we found a reduced set of parameters through some feature selection techniques. Selected parameters were validated employing three classification models. After evaluating the models’ metrics, our findings indicated that the set of selected parameters could identify a crutch walking pattern.