Clinical Research Directory

Influence of Hawthorne Effect and Dual-tasks on Gait in CP

It is the clinical experience of the authors that some children with cerebral palsy who walk in crouch gait show sufficient knee extension during the clinical gait analysis, but walk in considerable knee flexion when they leave the gait laboratory. Possible differences between walking in a gait lab and walking in daily life may be caused by the effect of observational awareness in the lab (also known as the Hawthorne effect), and the lack of dual-tasks (DT) during the analysis (which are common during daily life walking). Since so far there is no technique to reliably measure gait kinematics in children with CP outside of the laboratory, the researchers aim to objectify the influence of both the Hawthorne effect and dual-tasks by introducing different conditions during a standard clinical 3D gait analysis.