New Considerations for Collecting Biomechanical Data Using Wearable Sensors: How Does Inclination Influence the Number of Runs Needed to Determine a Stable Running Gait Pattern?

As inertial measurement units (IMUs) are used to capture gait data in real-world environments, guidelines are required in order to determine a 'typical' or 'stable' gait pattern across multiple days of data collection. Since uphill and downhill running can greatly affect the biomechanics of running gait, this study sought to determine the number of runs needed to establish a stable running pattern during level, downhill, and uphill conditions for both univariate and multivariate analyses of running biomechanical data collected using a single wearable IMU device. Pelvic drop, ground contact time, braking, vertical oscillation, pelvic rotation, and cadence, were recorded from thirty-five recreational runners running in three elevation conditions: level, downhill, and uphill. Univariate and multivariate normal distributions were estimated from differing numbers of runs and stability was defined when the addition of a new run resulted in less than a 5% change in the 2.5 and 97.5 quantiles of the 95% probability density function for each individual runner. This stability point was determined separately for each runner and each IMU variable (univariate and multivariate). The results showed that 2-4 runs were needed to define a stable running pattern for univariate, and 4-5 days were necessary for multivariate analysis across all inclination conditions. Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated to cross-validate differing elevation conditions and showed excellent correlations (r = 0.98 to 1.0) comparing the training and testing data within the same elevation condition and good to very good correlations (r = 0.63-0.88) when comparing training and testing data from differing elevation conditions. These results suggest that future research involving wearable technology should collect multiple days of data in order to build reliable and accurate representations of an individual's stable gait pattern.