Objectives: Obesity is a significant global health concern that involves motor impairment, including deficits in gait and balance. A simple tool would be useful to capture gait and balance impairment in obesity. We assessed whether the Functional Gait Assessment (FGA) captures impairment in individuals with obese BMI (≥30 kg/m2) and whether impairment was related to spatiotemporal gait parameters.
Methods: Fourteen individuals with obese BMI and twenty individuals of normal weight underwent the FGA. Spatiotemporal gait parameters were collected while participants walked on a pressure sensitive walkway under five conditions: pre-baseline (flat ground walking), crossing small, medium, and high obstacles, and final-baseline (flat ground walking).
Results: Individuals with obesity had lower scores on the FGA (p≤0.001) and showed less efficient spatiotemporal gait parameters than healthy controls, particularly when crossing over obstacles (all ps≤0.05). For participants with obesity, lower FGA scores were associated with decreased gait velocity, but only during obstacle crossing (p≤0.05).
Conclusions: The FGA may be a useful tool to capture gait impairment in populations with obesity. Obstacles may help reveal meaningful gait impairments. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the FGA in individuals with obesity, and represents a proof-of-concept that motivates further validation studies.
Keywords: Balance; Functional Gait Assessment; Gait; Obesity; Spatiotemporal Gait Parameters.