Changes in Gait with Anteriorly Added Mass: A Pregnancy Simulation Study

Abstract

During pregnancy, the female body experiences structural changes, such as weight gain. As pregnancy advances, most of the additional mass is concentrated anteriorly on the lower trunk. The purpose of this study is to analyze kinematic and kinetic changes when load is added anteriorly to the trunk, simulating a physical change experienced during pregnancy. Twenty healthy females walked on a treadmill while wearing a custom made pseudo-pregnancy sac (1 kg) under three load conditions: sac only, 10 pound condition (4.535 kg added anteriorly), and 20 pound condition (9.07 kg added anteriorly), used to simulate pregnancy, in the second trimester and at full term pregnancy, respectively. The increase in anterior mass resulted in kinematic changes at the knee, hip, pelvis, and trunk in the sagittal and frontal planes. Additionally, ankle, knee, and hip joint moments normalized to baseline mass increased with increased load; however, these moments decreased when normalized to total mass. These kinematic and kinetic changes may suggest that women modify gait biomechanics to reduce the effect of added load. Furthermore, the increase in joint moments increases stress on the musculoskeletal system and may contribute to musculoskeletal pain.

The Human Pelvis: Variation in Structure and Function During Gait

“…Here, we present data from our laboratory collected on 44 healthy individuals [22 females (age: 22.9 ± 2.8 years (mean ± standard deviation (SD)), height: 1.63 ± 0.07 m, mass: 61.1 ± 8.5 kg) and 22 males (age: 24.9 ± 6.3 years, height: 1.78 ± 0.09 m, mass: 75.2 ± 14.2 kg)] while walking on an instrumented force treadmill (Bertec Corporation, Columbus, OH). Data were collected and processed using standard motion capture methodology which has been previously published (Ogamba et al, ). Individuals were tested walking at two walking speeds: self‐selected (∼1.27 m/s) and prescribed (1.25 m/s).…”

Plantar pressure sore formation during advanced phases of pregnancy and the effect of special footwear

“…The distribution of pressure sore areas of the control and experimental group is in accordance with our hypothesis that the special footwear redistributes the forces acting on the foot. During pregnancy, the increased loading on the forefoot described in the previous study (Karadag-Saygi et al, 2010;Ogamba et al, 2016) increases the forefoot pressure sore occurrence observed in Area 1 and 2 in the control group. The special footwear introduction in the experimental group led for the left foot to the increase in pressure sore occurrence at the edge of the heel probably associated with the plantar pressure redistribution more to the heel area as an increase in pressure sore occurrence in the forefoot areas was not signifi cant.…”

Healthy Gait: Review of Anatomy and Physiology of Knee Joint

“…During pregnancy, the female body experiences structural changes, such as weight gain. As pregnancy advances, most of the additional mass is concentrated interiorly on the lower trunk [50] . In such conditions increase in the load with the increase in joint movements increases stress on the musculoskeletal system and contribute to pain [51] .…”