The effects of pediatric obesity on dynamic joint malalignment during gait

Abstract

Non-obese children showed greater range of motion in the sagittal plane, particularly at the hip and knee. Frontal and transverse plane differences suggest that obese children function in a more genu valgum position than non-obese children. Static measures of genu valgum have been previously associated with pediatric obesity; the findings indicate that there are also dynamic implications of said malalignment in obese children. Genu valgum presents increased risk of osteoarthritis for obese children and should be considered when prescribing weight bearing exercise to this cohort.

A systematic review on biomechanical characteristics of walking in children and adolescents with overweight/obesity: Possible implications for the development of musculoskeletal disorders

“…These results might be linked to the greater step width and hip internal rotation position above mentioned, which together could be indicating a lower limb valgus position commonly adopted by OW/OB during gait . Some authors have suggested that this valgus position helps provide a better dynamic stability in the frontal plane during gait and that it could be a subconscious strategy to reduce loading on the medial compartment of the knee joint . In agreement with the aforementioned findings in pelvis and hip, OW/OB still presented greater knee abduction power absorption than NW after taking into account their body mass, suggesting again that gait biomechanical alterations of this population are not only explained by the presence of excessive body mass .…”

“…We found strong evidence that OW/OB have greater pelvis transversal plane motion and higher hip internal rotation across the entire gait cycle compared with their NW peers . However, we did not find unanimity in kinematic results in the sagittal and frontal planes, and therefore the level of evidence was set as inconsistent.…”

Biomechanical evaluation of walking and cycling in children

“…For the walking trials, kinematic data were digitised and trimmed using Cortex. Kinetic data were filtered using a low pass fourth order Butterworth filter with a cut-off frequency of 6 Hz was used to remove noise (Shultz, D'Hondt, Fink, Lenoir, & Hills, 2014). All dependent variables relating to the walking trials were processed with Visual 3D software (C-Motion, Inc., Germantown, MD, USA) version 5.…”

Effects of swimming exercise on high-fat diet-induced low bone mineral density and trabecular bone microstructure in rats

“…For obese patients, however, weight training can add excessive load on joints or bones, together with the increased body mass, and lead to joint injuries 19, 35 . Therefore, non-weightbearing exercises such as swimming, water walking, and cycling that are easy on joints can be suggested as an effective exercise program for obese patients with reduced bone mineral density 30 . Non-weight-bearing exercises are commonly considered inappropriate for improving bone mineral density, since they do not sufficiently stimulate the bones.…”