Evaluation and comparison of Senegalese boys aged 7 to 12 maximum walking speed
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Abstract
Introduction: Walking in children, can be altered as a result of accidents or illnesses. These changes can be long-lasting and can even render the child unable to walk.
Rehabilitation doctors in Africa in general, and in Senegal in particular, do not have benchmarks enabling them to assess the degree to which a child's maximum walking speed has been recovered at the end of rehabilitation.
Objective
To assess and compare the maximum walking speed of Senegalese boys aged 7 to 12.
Materials and methods
One hundred and eighty Senegalese boys were divided into 6 age groups of thirty children. Each child walked as fast as possible over a flat distance of 15m delimited by photoelectric cells. For each child, the average maximum walking speed was calculated from the three recorded trials. The average maximum speed for each child was used to determine the average maximum walking speed for each group of children. The mean maximum speed and the mean maximum speed related to the length of the lower limb of the 6 groups were compared two by two using Student's t test.
Results
The mean maximum walking speed of seven-year-olds (2.17 m/s ±0.26) was significantly (P
<0.05) slower than those of the other five groups. The walking speed of nine-year-olds was significantly lower than that of ten- and eleven-year-olds. The walking speed of twelve-year- olds was significantly higher than that of ten- and eleven-year-olds.
Relative to the length of the lower limb, the walking speed of ten- and eleven-year-olds is significantly greater than that of seven- and eight-year-olds.
Conclusion
The maximum walking speeds for children aged seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven and twelve were 2.17m/s, 2.37m/s, 2.38m/s, 2.59m/s, 2.62m/s and 2.79m/s respectively.
The average maximum walking speed of the seven-year-olds was significantly lower than that of the other five groups,
With the exception of nine-year-olds, the average maximum walking speed of twelve-year- olds was significantly higher than that of children in the other groups.