RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN KINETIC VARIABLES AND SMOOTHNESS OF KNEE JOINT MOVEMENT IN THE STANCE PHASE

摘要

The purposes of this study were to clarify which period of the stance phase shows the greatest decrease in the smoothness of the knee joint movement and to analyze the relationships between kinetic variables and the smoothness of the knee joint movement during the stance phase using the angular jerk cost (AJC). The study subjects were 11 healthy adults. To clarify the relationships between the kinetic variables and the AJC, Pearson s product correlation coefficients were calculated for the AJC and three kinetic variables. The AJC in the early stance phase was significantly larger than those in the other three phases, and it was confirmed that the early stance phase showed the greatest decrease in smoothness of the knee joint movement. Furthermore, there was a positive correlation between the AJC and the vertical component of the ground reaction force in the early stance phase. Correlations between the AJC and the kinetic variables were also found in the other three phases. Regarding evaluation of the smoothness of the knee joint movement using the AJC based on the present results, the AJC may be an important index for understanding the dynamics of the knee joint in the early stance phase.