How can texting affect your walking?

Walking while texting is a familiar sight throughout urban environments around the world. The use of mobile phones in this manner is a relevant example of distracted walking, which has a considerable influence on the risk of trips, slips, falls, and even road safety. The aim of this study was to assess the effects texting while walking on the spatiotemporal aspects of gait, in particular among healthy young adults, when walking at different speeds in an ecologically setting. Ten young healthy adults each completed 2 rounds of the following 4 experimental conditions - (a) walking only and (b) walking & texting on a mobile phone, at self-selected normal and fast walking speeds. Both rounds were preceded by a texting-only assessment of texting performance. Gait velocity, stride length, cadence, and double support time were computed using data collected from two inertial motion units placed over the laces of each shoe. Significant decreases were observed in mean gait velocity (-9.7%), stride length (-8.1%), cadence (-2.3%), concurrent with a significant increase in double support time (+9.9%) when walking while texting was compared with walking only. Moreover, texting increased the relative variability of walking, as demonstrated by a significant increase in the coefficient of variation of cadence (+56.2%), stride length (+73.1%), and double support time (+22.4%). The observed spatio-temporal changes in the reported stride parameters indicate that texting while walking may be suggestive of compromised balance, potentially increasing the risk of trips, slips, and falls.