Abstract
Patients with osteoarthritis of the knee commonly alter their movement to compensate for lower limb weakness and alleviate joint pain. Movement alterations may lead to weight-bearing asymmetries, and potentially to the progression of the disease. This study presents a novel numerical procedure for the identification of sit-to-walk strategies and differences in movement habits between control adults and persons with knee osteoarthritis. Ten control and 12 participants with osteoarthritis performed the sit-to-walk task in a motion capture laboratory. Participants sat on a stool with the height adjusted to 100% of their knee height, then stood and walked to pick up an object from a table in front of them. Different movement strategies were identified by means of hierarchical clustering. Trials were also classified as to whether the left and right extremities used a bilateral or an asymmetrical strategy. Participants with osteoarthritis used significantly more asymmetrical arm strategies (P = .03) while adopting the pushing through the chair strategy more often than the control subjects (P = .02). The results demonstrated that the 2 groups favor different sit-to-walk strategies. Asymmetrical arm behavior possibly indicates a compensation for the weakness of the affected leg. The proposed procedure may be useful to rapidly assess postoperative outcomes and developing rehabilitation strategies.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 96-103 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Journal of Applied Biomechanics |
Volume | 34 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Apr 2018 |
Keywords
- Hierarchical clustering
- Motion analysis
- Movement asymmetries
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biophysics
- Orthopedics and Sports Medicine
- Rehabilitation