Nowadays, gait assessment in the real life environment is gaining more attention. Therefore, it is desirable to know how some factors, such as surfaces (natural, artificial) or dual-tasking, influence real life gait pattern. The aim of this study was to assess gait variability and gait complexity during single and dual-task walking on different surfaces in an outdoor environment. Twenty-nine healthy young adults aged 23.31 ± 2.26 years (18 females, 11 males) walked at their preferred walking speed on three different surfaces (asphalt, cobbles, grass) in single-task and in two dual-task conditions (manual task-carrying a cup filled with water, cognitive task-subtracting the number 7). A triaxial inertial sensor attached to the lower trunk was used to record trunk acceleration during gait. From 15 strides, sample entropy (SampEn) as an indicator of gait complexity and root mean square (RMS) as an indicator of gait variability were computed. The findings demonstrate that in an outdoor environment, the surfaces significantly impacted only gait variability, not complexity, and that the tasks affected both gait variability and complexity in young healthy adults.

Department of Natural Sciences in Kinanthropology Faculty of Physical Culture Palacký University Olomouc 771 11 Olomouc Czech Republic

Institut Universitaire de France 75231 Paris France

LabCom Telecom4Health Orange Labs and Université Grenoble Alpes CNRS Inria Grenoble INP UGA 38000 Grenoble France

Laboratory AGEIS Université Grenoble Alpes AGEIS 38000 Grenoble France

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