Objective: To determine range and variance for spatiotemporal parameters from a short motor test battery using depth sensing technology.

Background: Emerging instrumented motion analysis systems enable objective assessment of motor capacity in different movement disorders. The interpretability of this data depends on the availability of robust reference values from healthy controls. Reference values cannot be considered transferable between motion analysis systems due to differences in sensor technology, measurement protocols, and algorithms for parameter extraction.

Method: A convenience sample of healthy adults (n=121; 70 female; 18-80 years) was pooled from three observational studies. All subjects performed a standardized set of short motor tasks as part of the study protocol. Tasks included postural control, stepping in place, comfortable speed gait, and tandem gait. A subset (n=78; 48 female; 19-80 years) additionally performed maximum speed gait and standing up and sitting down. All tasks were recorded with a commercial depth camera and analyzed using custom algorithms. A total of 36 parameters describing spatiotemporal movement characteristics were extracted for further analysis. In addition to descriptive analyses, we evaluated the influence of demographic and anthropometric features by examining multiple linear regression models with age, gender, height, and weight as independent and spatiotemporal parameters as dependent variables.

Results: Descriptive statistics including mean, standard deviation, quartiles, and range were extracted to describe parameter distributions. In multiple linear regression, only little variance of the spatiotemporal parameters was explained by demographic and anthropometric features (R²<.23 for all parameters, except R²=.46 for mean step length in maximum speed gait). Across all tasks, 23 parameters were associated with one or more feature (p<.05, not corrected for multiple comparisons), 14 parameters with gender, 7 with weight, 6 with age, and 6 with height.

Conclusion: The assessed normative values are an important prerequisite to interpret data acquired in clinical populations and define useful cut-offs for pathology. Further recruitment of healthy subjects from less represented age and gender strata is expected to consolidate these reference ranges and help determine whether normalization regarding demographic and anthropometric features is necessary.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/normative-data-for-six-standardized-motor-tasks-in-healthy-adults/