It has been created a lot of variables (or parameters) of the center of pressure (Velocity, Length ...) which are used to asses and generate a clinical and biomechanical interpretation about postural balance. The gait is one of those important activities that allow us to interact with the surrounding environment, and can show how the postural balance is developing.
In order to asses the postural balance and the center of pressure, we can use different devices (force platforms, pressure insoles) which allow us to measure all the variables related to it. One of those variables is the COP velocity. Wich are the normal values of this parameter? is there a way to analyze the results of its measurement?
What do you mean by "normal values" - the values you record will depend on the walking or running velocity -
First at all, Thank you very much for taking your time on being part of this question; since my english is not quite well, i'll try to explain my doubts properly.
I'm agree with you; in order to determinate such values, we gotta have in count the velocity on the gait´s pattern. However i'd found 3 or 4 studies in which the authors asked to their subjects to walk at a "comfortable velocity", term that i know that would be different because the conception of each subject, aside from the morphological differences. In one of those studies it looks like their differences (in the COP velocity) were according to the kind of shoe the subjects were using (High of the heel, flat shoe ... ); in other study it seems like the difference depends on how the subject´s foot were positioned when they walked (neutral foot, inverted fooot, everted foot ... ), and other study showed differences in the velocity depending on the part of the foot (rearfoot, midfoot, forefoot) without variations in the way the subjects performed the gait.
I'm taking as reference the conditions were the foot was positioned on a neutral way, a low heel, or flat shoe (wich according to the studies showed values from 12 mm/s to 40 mm/s). The reason behind why i'd considered those conditions is because i'm interested on evaluate COP parameters in a specific population (healthy men; ages between 19 and 25 years old) with a device that allows me to measure some of the COP parameters (Area, velocity, displacement).
What i'm trying to determinate with this question is if there would be any clinical meaning (higher risk of falls due to lesser contribution or integration of sensorial inputs) if we try to do this on a population under a different condition (fatigue, muscle or skeletal disorder, neurological disorder) if we found values that are not similar to those found on previous studies. But in order to determinate the meaning, i want to be sure if there are already values considered "normal", or if a can use this kind of studies as reference cause i also want to test this parameters under a "comfortable velocity".
I agree with M.Nachiappan, however It's important to understand that COP is calculated from these ground reaction forces. In reflects the trajectory of the COM and the amount of torque applied at the support surface to control body-mass acceleration. Normally in the gait analysis, its important to measure also the COP amplitude, which to assessment potential modifications in the postural control strategy. In this way, COP velocity or speed, is the measure of the sum of displacements scalars (ie. The cumulated distance over the sampling period) divided by the sampling time. It represents the amount of activity required to maintain the stability.
In this way, I found some papers which deal with this subject.
I hope this helps.
Thank you very much to both of you; all your information has been really usefull for me, and it really helps me to understand much more about this meassurements
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