title: The influence of excess body mass on adult gait.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study aimed to assess the presentation of gait for adults who are overweight, independent of the confounding influence of velocity.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross sectional study design. Twenty-five adults of a healthy weight were matched by age, gender, height and velocity to twenty-five adults who were overweight. Participants traversed a 10m walkway embedded with 2 AMTI force platforms (AMTI BP400600 Force Platforms: Advanced Mechanical Technologies, Inc., Watertown, MA, USA) and running between 2 CODA Dual CX1 sensors (CODA CX1: Charnwood Dynamics, Barrow on Soar, Leicestershire, England). Temporal-spatial parameters, maximum ground reaction forces, maximum joint powers, and three dimensional kinematic and kinetic parameters at the 7 events of the gait cycle were assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  With velocity accounted for, relatively few changes in the presentation of gait were seen for adults who were overweight. Alterations included increased stance phase duration, hip flexion, knee flexion, hip abduction, and knee varus for overweight adults. A reduction in hip abductor moment normalised for body mass was noted for overweight adults. Absolute maximum ground reaction forces were increased while maximum hip power absorption was reduced for overweight adults.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Changes were seen at the hip and knee during the swing phase of gait. During swing there is a stronger association with soft tissue injury as compared to joint injury. Overweight individuals were seen to adopt few alterations during the stance phase to accommodate for the increased absolute ground reaction forces. As a result the joint surfaces of overweight adults are exposed to increased loading.
authors: Discipline of Physiotherapy, School of Medicine University of Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. sheehakj@tcd.ie
authors: Katie Jane
authors: KJ
authors: Sheehan
authors: John
authors: J
authors: Gormley
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005684:Gait; D006621:Hip Joint / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D007700:Kinetics; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D050177:Overweight / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular