Walking with poles is one of the gait modification strategies for reducing external knee varus moments in people with medial knee osteoarthritis (OA). However, there are two types of pole techniques, Nordic walking (NW: pole back condition) and pole walking (PW: pole front condition). The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in knee joint kinematics, and kinetics during level walking, and two types of walking with poles. A total of 22 subjects with a mean age of 21.2 years (SD: 1.3 years) participated. Three-dimensional gait analysis was conducted on level walking (LW), NW and PW. The first and second peaks of the knee kinematic and kinetic data and ground reaction forces were used. No significant differences were found between NW and PW in the knee kinematics and kinetics data. The second peak of the knee varus moment in NW and PW (0.34 and 0.33 Nm/kg, respectively) was significantly decreased compared to LW (0.42 Nm/kg, p < 0.01; Effect size = 0.70, p < 0.01; Effect size = 0.82). The first peak of the flexion moment in the knee during NW (1.2 Nm/kg) was significantly higher compared to LW (1.2 Nm/kg, p < 0.01; Effect size = 0.98). However, the present study could not clarify any different effect on the knee joint due to different instructions of the back pole and forward pole technique.
Effect of Knee Osteoarthritis Progression on Knee-Joint Kinematics and Kinetics during Gait
