| Keywords |
Walking speed ; Stride length ; Age difference ; Sex difference ; Built environment |
| Abstract |
This study evaluated whether the walking patterns can vary during unrestricted free walking at inner city park trail while different tempo of music is provided. Unnoticeable video recordings were performed at one of the city park trail. During the recording, one of the three background musics; no music (NM), slow music (SM, <76 beat/ min), fast music (FM, >120 beat/min) was provided. A total of 1,244 walkers' data was analyzed for step length (SL), step rate (SR), and walking speed (Speed) while comparing among sex and three age groups; young (YG, <30 yrs), middle (MG, 31-59 yrs), and old (OG, ≥60 yrs). Men and women both walked faster in FM than NM and SM, and men walked faster than women (P<0.05). SR was higher in FM (P<0.05), but no sex differences were found among conditions. SL showed the highest in FM, but the values were higher in men than women in all conditions (P<0.05). Speed was higher in YG and MG of both sex, however, except YG of men, the increased Speed was attributed to elevated SL only without changes of SR. The walking patterns of OG were not influenced by any musics. In conclusion, the slow music did not modify walking speed while the fast music resulted in increased walking speed during walking in trail. The increased speed at fast music was possible by both increased stride length and rate. Man was faster than woman, in which the stride length for man was greater than woman. The older group did not showed any responses to musical background. |