Editorial: Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to Characterize Gait and Posture Disturbances in Aging and Related Diseases

Gait abnormalities can be caused by natural signs of aging and/or by specific diseases. Therefore, any study that aims to analyze gait in the elderly faces the problem of the interaction between, at least, these two factors. Even if gait analysis nowadays is a solid and well-known tool for research, the interpretation of the results is strongly linked to the interdependence among the different aspects that can affect the subjects in analysis. The most obvious solution to this problem is to focus on narrow studies centered on specific techniques or patients’ conditions. Such studies are important, and in the past have led to several methodological advances. However, not considering age-related factors that are relevant for gait and posture analysis can generate misleading and contradictory results. Contemporary research often suffers from a lack of repeatability, inconsistency of results, and confounding of parameters. These problems can be related to the limited cross-disciplinary approaches applied. Specific studies can appear significant when performed individually, but they can lose significance when included in the wider research context in which they belong...