Dataset Information

Obesity May Not Induce Dynamic Stability Disadvantage during Overground Walking among Young Adults.

ABSTRACT: Obesity has been related to postural instability during static standing. It remains unknown how obesity influences stability during dynamic movements like gait. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the effects of obesity on dynamic gait stability control in young adults during gait. Forty-four young adults (21 normal-weight and 23 obese) participated in this study. Participants walked five times at their self-selected gait speeds on a linear walkway. Their full-body kinematics were gathered by a motion capture system. Compared with normal-weight group, individuals with obesity walked more slowly with a shorter but wider step. People with obesity also spent an elongated double stance phase than those with normal weight. A reduced gait speed decreases the body center of mass's velocity relative to the base of support, leading to a reduction in dynamic stability. On the other hand, a shortened step in accompanying with a less backward-leaning trunk has the potential to bring the center of mass closer to the base of support, resulting in an increase in dynamic stability. As the result of these adaptive changes to the gait pattern, dynamic gait stability among people with obesity did not significantly differ from the one among people with normal weight. Obesity seems to not be inducing dynamic stability disadvantage in young adults during level overground walking. These findings could provide insight into the mechanisms of stability control among people affected by obesity during dynamic locomotion.

SUBMITTER: Liu ZQ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5235382 | biostudies-other | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Obesity May Not Induce Dynamic Stability Disadvantage during Overground Walking among Young Adults.

Liu Zhong-Qi ZQ Yang Feng F

PloS one 20170113 1

Obesity has been related to postural instability during static standing. It remains unknown how obesity influences stability during dynamic movements like gait. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the effects of obesity on dynamic gait stability control in young adults during gait. Forty-four young adults (21 normal-weight and 23 obese) participated in this study. Participants walked five times at their self-selected gait speeds on a linear walkway. Their full-body kinematics were g ...[more]

PMID: 28085914

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Project description:Slopes are present in everyday environments and require specific postural strategies for successful navigation; different arm strategies may be used to manage external perturbations while walking. It has yet to be determined what impact arm swing has on postural strategies and gait stability during sloped walking. We investigated the potentially interacting effects of surface slope and arm motion on gait stability and postural strategies in healthy young adults. We tested 15 healthy adults, using the CAREN-Extended system to simulate a rolling-hills environment which imparted both incline (uphill) and decline (downhill) slopes (± 3°). This protocol was completed under three imposed arm swing conditions: held, normal, active. Spatiotemporal gait parameters, mediolateral margin of stability, and postural kinematics in anteroposterior (AP), mediolateral (ML), and vertical (VT) directions were assessed. Main effects of conditions and interactions were evaluated by 2-way repeated measures analysis of variance. Our results showed no interactions between arm swing and slope; however, we found main effects of arm swing and main effects of slope. As expected, uphill and downhill sections of the rolling-hills yielded opposite stepping and postural strategies compared to level walking, and active and held arm swings led to opposite postural strategies compared to normal arm swing. Arm swing effects were consistent across slope conditions. Walking with arms held decreased gait speed, indicating a level of caution, but maintained stability comparable to that of walking with normal arm swing. Active arm swing increased both step width variability and ML-MoS during downhill sections. Alternately, ML-MoS was larger with increased step width and double support time during uphill sections compared to level, which demonstrates that distinct base of support strategies are used to manage arm swing compared to slope. The variability of the rolling-hills also required proactive base of support changes despite the mild slopes to maintain balance.

Project description:A stable walking pattern is presumably essential to avoid falls. Stability of walking is most accurately determined by the short-term local dynamic stability (maximum Lyapunov exponent) of the body centre of mass. In many studies related to fall risk, however, variability of step width is considered to be indicative of the stability of the centre of mass during walking. However, other footfall parameters, in particular variability of stride time, have also been associated with increased risk for falling. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the association between short-term local dynamic stability of the body centre of mass and different measures of footfall variability. Twenty subjects performed unperturbed walking trials on a treadmill and under increased (addition of 40% body weight) and decreased (harness system) demands to stabilise the body centre of mass. Association between stability of the centre of mass and footfall parameters was established using a structural equation model. Walking with additional body weight lead to greater instability of the centre of mass and increased stride time variability, however had no effect on step width variability. Supported walking in the harness system did not increase centre of mass stability further, however, led to a significant decrease of step width and increase in stride time variability. A structural equation model could only predict 8% of the variance of the centre of mass stability after variability of step width, stride time and stride length were included. A model which included only step width variability as exogenous variable, failed to predict centre of mass stability. Because of the failure to predict centre of mass stability in this study, it appears, that the stability of the centre of mass is controlled by more complex interaction of sagittal and frontal plane temporal and spatial footfall parameters, than those observed by standard variability measures. Anyway, this study does not support the application of step width variability as indicator for medio-lateral stability of the centre of mass during walking.

Dataset Information

Obesity May Not Induce Dynamic Stability Disadvantage during Overground Walking among Young Adults.

Publications

Obesity May Not Induce Dynamic Stability Disadvantage during Overground Walking among Young Adults.

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