Analysis kinematics and kinetics of the lower limbs during running in young adults and elderly

Author(s)

Cristina Porto Alves Alcantara

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Educação Física e Esportes (EEFE/BT)
• Defense date: 2013-03-08

Examining board members

Marcos Duarte; Rômulo Cássio de Moraes Bertuzzi; Arturo Forner Cordero

• Advisor: Marcos Duarte

Abstract

Running is one of the activities that had the highest number of participants among elderly population. It is known that during running, elderly have different patterns of young adults, as a greater toe-out angle. However it is still unknown the relationship between the mechanical loads at the joints of the lower limbs. Several studies point to a correlation between the external knee adduction moment and the toe-out angle, including as a protective mechanism among people with knee osteoarthritis, a common disease in people over 65 years old. Thus, we sought to investigate a possible relationship between the toe-out angle increased in these individuals and the knee moment in the frontal plane. Twenty-two young adult runners, 23 elderly runners and 13 sedentary elderly walked at 5 km/h and ran at 7, 10 km/h and at the mean speed of the last 10 K race. At the speed of 5 km/h and 10 km/h the individuals who were runners also performed a condition with the toe-out angle increased beyond the natural. The subjects did all tasks in an instrumented treadmill with independent two belts and two force plates with six components operating at 600 Hz (Bertec, USA) and had the lower limb movements registered by a tridimentional motion analysis system with eight infrared cameras operating at 150Hz (Motion Analysis Corporation, USA). A complete kinematics and kinectics analysis were made using Visual3D (CMotion. Inc., USA) and Matlab (Mathworks, USA) softwares. The toe-out angle and the external knee adduction moment were measured during all conditions and compared between the condition with and without the toe-out angle increased, and between the groups with a mixed effects modeling and ANOVA respectivelly. The joint angles and joint moments were compared between groups with Wilcoxon Signed-rank tests with Bonferroni correction. In general, young adult runners, elderly runners and elderly sedentaries had differences in kinematic and kinetic pattern of movement of lower limbs during walk at 5 km/h and run at 7 km/h. There were also differences, though in smaller number, during run at 10 km/h and run at mean speed of the last 10 K race between young adult runners and elderly runners. Contrasting the literature there was no relation between toe-out angle and external knee adduction moment and we didnt observe a greater angle in elderly than young adults during walk or run, it maybe can be explained by the fact that the tasks were above a double belt treadmill, what can lead to a different feet position (toe-out) (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 10/02878-5 - Comparative analysis of the lower limbs distribution joint torque during the run in adults and elderly runners
• Grantee: Cristina Porto Alves Alcantara
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master