title: The influence of stride-length on plantar foot-pressures and joint moments.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Joint moments have been acknowledged as key factors in understanding gait abnormalities. Gait velocity is further known to affect joint moments and foot pressures. Keeping gait velocity constant is thus a strategy to cancel out the influence of different preferred gait speed between groups. But even if gait velocity is controlled, individuals can choose different stride length-stride frequency combinations to cope with an imposed gait velocity.
  
  
  METHODS
  To understand the influence of stride frequency-stride length on joint moments and plantar pressures.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty healthy young adults had to cross an 8m walkway with a walking speed of 1.3ms(-1). The wooden walkway was equipped with a force and a pressure platform. While walking speed was kept constant each participant walked with five different imposed stride lengths (SL): preferred (SL0); with a decrease of 10% (SL-10); with a decrease of 20% (SL-20); with an increase of 10% (SL+10) and with an increase of 20% (SF+20).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ankle and knee joint moments significantly decreased with a decrease in SL. A significant (p<.05) lower peak pressure was achieved with a decreased SL under the heel, toes and midfoot.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results showed that a change in stride lengths alters both, joint moments and foot pressures with clinically interesting indications. Redistribution of joint moments in the elderly for example might rather result from decreased SL than from age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Movement Sciences, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands. lara.allet@hcuge.ch
authors.forename: Lara
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Allet
authors.forename: Herman
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: IJzerman
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Meijer
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Willems
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Savelberg
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000843:Ankle Joint / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005528:Foot / Q000502:physiology*; D005684:Gait / Q000502:physiology*; D006621:Hip Joint / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D011312:Pressure; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology