ANALYSIS OF GAIT DURING INDEPENDENT AND PAIRED WALKING IN ADULTS WITH AN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY: A CASE REPORT

Guillaume Fumery (1) , Vincent Fourcassié (1) , Pierre Moretto (1) , Véronique Bourg

1 CRCA - Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale - UMR5169

Objective: Gait rehabilitation is a major concern for adults with an intellectual disability or a neu-ropsychological disorder. This study evaluated a collective task exercise that could complement an individual rehabilitation routine in such individuals. The movements of 3 individuals (2 patients and 1 healthy individual) were measured while walking alone and in pairs. The recovery rate, amplitude and speed of centre of mass of individuals walking alone were measured and compared with the values of the centre of mass of the system formed by pairs of individuals. Results: When individuals were walking alone, all parameter values were lower in the 2 patients than in the healthy individual. When the patients were walking in pairs, their recovery rate decreased, but their speed increased when each of them was pai-red with a healthy individual. In pairs, the recovery rate and the amplitude of the centre of mass remained the same as when walking alone. Conclusion: Gait rehabilitation does not appear to improve when intellectually disabled patients walk in pairs compared with when they walk alone. However , walking with a healthy individual seems to be more efficient. litation doctor, a physiotherapist and an occupational therapist re-educate patients. The rehabilitation of gait and motor abilities is an essential part of the treatment, and the patient's walking ability thus needs to be assessed regularly. The main objective of this study was to propose a relevant exercise for this assessment. Based on a protocol used to investigate the collaboration between 2 healthy individuals (1), an exercise was conceived that aimed to enable 2 patients with intellectual disability to work together. The centre of mass (CoM) was measured during a complete walking cycle at constant speed, first of 2 patients walking alone, then of 2 of the same patients walking in pairs together, or with a healthy subject, while linked by an object they were carrying. It was investigated whether, when walking alone, the patients walk in the same way as healthy individuals and whether, when walking in LAY ABSTRACT A standard method to study locomotion is to analyze the trajectory of the center of mass of walking individuals. In our paper we propose to use this method to evaluate the changes in gait efficiency when such patients are walking alone and when they are walking in pairs linked by a load they transport. We worked with two patients suffering from an intellectual disability. These two patients could be paired either together or with their physiotherapist. Our results show that when the patients were walking in pairs their gait was less efficient than when walking alone. However, when the patients were paired with their physiotherapist, gait efficiency was the same as that as when they were walking alone. We suggest that this collective work could be used as a physical, social and mental exercise they could perform with their physiotherapist and that could be included in their rehabilitation routine.

Mots clés: intellectual disability; gait; adults; physiothera- pist

Domaines: Psychologie et comportements

Guillaume Fumery, Vincent Fourcassié, Pierre Moretto, Véronique Bourg. ANALYSIS OF GAIT DURING INDEPENDENT AND PAIRED WALKING IN ADULTS WITH AN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY: A CASE REPORT. Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine - Clinical Communications, 2018, 1, ⟨10.2340/20030711-1000009⟩. ⟨hal-02327210⟩