Concurrent validity of wearable IMUs for sagittal plane lower-limb range of motion during walking and estimated ground reaction forces: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Inertial measurement units (IMUs) offer a portable, affordable alternative to optical motion capture (OMC) systems for gait analysis. This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the concurrent validity of IMUs against gold-standard systems (OMC and force plates) for the lower-limb sagittal plane range of motion (RoM) during walking. We also summarized evidence on estimating vertical and anterior-posterior ground reaction forces (GRFs).

Methods

PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Central were searched on December 10, 2023 and updated on August 26, 2025. We included studies of ambulatory human participants where IMUs were compared with optical motion capture or force plates for sagittal plane RoM or on estimating vertical and anterior-posterior GRFs.

SUBMITTER: Bissenov A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12519875 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature