S Index Gait Efficiency Data for Young and Older Adults

Ground reaction force data from 24 healthy adults (13 young, 11 older) walking on an instrumented treadmill at five speeds relative to their preferred speed. The dataset, authored by Elham Alijanpour and last updated in March 2026, quantifies step-to-step transition efficiency using the S index and related impulse and timing characteristics. Results indicate older adults exhibited higher S index values, suggesting less efficient gait.

Use Cases

• Modeling age-related declines in gait efficiency based on the S index metric.
• Analyzing the relationship between walking speed and step-to-step transition mechanics based on multi-speed treadmill data.
• Investigating neuromuscular coordination in walking based on timing and impulse characteristics like pre-HC duration and push-off impulse.
• Developing predictive metrics for energetic cost of walking in older populations based on mechanically grounded step-level data.

Strengths

• Data includes a controlled comparison of two distinct age groups (13 young and 11 older adults).
• Measurements were taken at five standardized walking speeds relative to each participant's preferred speed.
• Dataset is shared under a permissive CC-BY-4.0 license.
• The study provides a specific, mechanically grounded metric (the S index) for analysis.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The sample size of 24 participants is relatively small for broad generalization.

Provenance

Source

figshare, author Elham Alijanpour.

Collection Method

Ground reaction force data collected from participants walking on an instrumented treadmill.

Time Range

null

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-18 07:45:51; freshness should be verified.

Geography

null