Abstract
Excessive hip joint loads during daily activities could be a risk factor for initiation and progression of hip osteoarthritis (Hip-OA). In the daily activities, walking is one of the highest frequent opportunities that make loads on hip joint. A gait modification could a noninvasive treatment option that reduces the hip joint force to care and cure Hip-OA. However, direct measurements of hip joint load during walking are difficult. It has also been reported that there is a positive correlation between maximum hip joint load and maximum hip adduction moment during walking. In this study, we are aiming to find a suitable "step width" to reduce the hip adduction moment during walking. Ten subjects walked varying "step width" from 0 m to 0.4 m by 0.1 m increments. As results, all ten subjects showed the maximum adduction moment decreases with larger step width than normal step width. Given those results, we believe that a gait modification by varying step width could be one of the noninvasive treatment options to care and cure Hip-OA.
