Spatiotemporal gait parameters in young individuals wearing an age simulation suit compared to healthy older individuals

INTRODUCTION: Aging is accompanied by changes in muscle mass, strength and loss of sensory, visual and auditive functions. However, these changes do not occur linearly, most spatiotemporal gait parameters change with aging. Age simulation suits have been invented to give young people an impression of the implications of being older and may be a useful tool in the scientific setting for gerontology research to validate any study concept before it becomes a pilot study. The rationale behind this study was to investigate the effects of an age simulation suit on gait parameters in young healthy adults and to compare the altered gait with healthy older, community-dwelling citizens. METHODS: Subjects were 14 healthy young adults (6 female) and 8 healthy older (4 female) individuals with a mean (± SD) age of 24.8 ± 3.4 years and 72 ± 1.9 years, respectively. After initial baseline measurements had been taken and a familiarization phase, the younger subjects walked for 15 min without and 15 min with an age simulation suit on an instrumented treadmill. The older subjects walked once for 15 min on the same treadmill without wearing an age simulation suit. The walking speed was self-selected for all subjects. RESULTS: The age simulation suit reduced the walking speed from 4.1 ± 0.7 km/h to 3.3 ± 0.5 km/h (p < 0.001) in young adults with no differences compared to older adults (2.9 ± 0.6 km/h, p = 0.9). Step width increased from 8.7 ± 2.2 cm to 12.1 ± 2.2 cm (p < 0.001) and did not differ from older participants (11.1 ± 4.3 cm, p = 0.37). The stride length was reduced (132.6 ± 5.9 cm vs 118.1 +—6.6 cm, p < 0.001), but still did not match the old control group (94.5 ± 5.6 cm, p < 0.05). Wearing the suit increased thestride time of young subjects (from 1,152 to 1,316 ms, p < 0.001) and was different compared to the older control group (1,172 ms, p = 0.53). The coefficient of variation (COV) of spatiotemporal parameters did not differ between young (both not wearing the suit and wearing the suit) and older subjects. The standard deviation of lateral symmetry, an in-house marker from the instrumented treadmill that serves as a marker of gait variability, differed between young subjects without the suit and older subjects (5.89 ± 1.9 mm vs 14.6 ± 5.7 mm, p < 0.001) but not between young subjects wearing the suit and older subjects (16.4 ± 7.4 mm vs 14.6 ± 5.7 mm, p = 0.53). CONCLUSION: Wearing an age simulation suit while walking on a treadmill with a self-selected walking speed alters some, but not all, measured spatiotemporal parameters to approximate a gait pattern similar to that of an older individual.