Gait Retraining
Goal
- To determine if knee joint loading could be altered through various retraining methods:
- Weight shift of foot through verbal feedback.
- Weight shift of foot through real-time active feedback.
- Increased lateral trunk lean.
Major Findings
- The real-time active feedback system successfully reduced knee adduction moments by an average of 14.2% (p<0.01) through a weight bearing shift to the medial side of the foot in healthy, active subjects.
- Verbal feedback trended towards reducing the knee adduction moment (p=0.08) through a weight bearing shift to the medial side of the foot in healthy, active subjects.
- In healthy subjects, increased medio-lateral trunk sway reduced the knee adduction moment by 65%.
- Potential adverse secondary gait changes (decreased knee flexion angles at heelstrike, and greater axial loading rates at the joints of the lower extremities) were not present during trunk sway in healthy subjects.
Representative Publications
- Gait modification via verbal instruction and an active feedback system to reduce peak knee adduction moment.
Dowling AV, Fisher DS, Andriacchi TP. J Biomech Eng. 2010 Jul;132(7). - Implications of increased medio-lateral trunk sway for ambulatory mechanics.
Mündermann A, Asay JL, Mündermann L, Andriacchi TP. J Biomech. 2008; 41(1):165-70.