Effects of toe-out and toe-in gait with varying walking speeds on knee joint mechanics and lower limb energetics

摘要

Toe-out/-in gait has been prescribed in reducing knee joint load to medial knee osteoarthritis patients. This study focused on the effects of toe-out/-in at different walking speeds on first peak knee adduction moment (fKAM), second peak KAM (sKAM), knee adduction angular impulse (KAAI), net mechanical work by lower limb as well as joint-level contribution to the total limb work during level walking. Gait analysis of 20 healthy young adults was done walking at pre-defined normal (1.18 m/s), slow (0.85 m/s) and fast (1.43 m/s) walking speeds with straight-toe (natural), toe-out (15 degrees > natural) and toe in (15 degrees < natural). Repeated measure ANOVA (p < 0.05) with post-hoc Tukey's test was applied for statistical analysis.