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Updated: Apr 20, 2026
Substantiating Appropriate Motion Capture Techniques for the Assessment of Nordic Walking Gait and Posture in Older Adults
Published on: May 12, 2016
Influence of wedges on lower limbs' kinematics and net joint moments during healthy elderly gait using principal
Denise Paschoal Soares1, Marcelo Peduzzi de Castro1, Emília Mendes2
1Center of Research, Education, Innovation and Intervention in Sport, Faculty of Sport, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal; Porto Biomechanics Laboratory, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
Abstract:
The elderly are susceptible to many disorders that alter the gait pattern and could lead to falls and reduction of mobility. One of the most applied therapeutical approaches to correct altered gait patterns is the insertion of insoles. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is a powerful method used to reduce redundant information and it allows the comparison of the complete waveform. The purpose of this study was to verify the influence of wedges on lower limbs' net joint moment and range of motion (ROM) during the gait of healthy elderly participants using PCA. In addition, discrete values of lower limbs' peak net moment and ROM were also evaluated. 20 subjects walked with no wedges (control condition) and wearing six different wedges. The variables analyzed were the Principal Components from joint net moments and ROM in the sagittal plane in the ankle and knee and joint net moments in frontal plane in the knee. The discrete variables were peak joint net moments and ROM in sagittal plane in knee and ankle. The results showed the influence of the wedges to be clearer by analyzing through PCA methods than to use discrete parameters of gait curves, where the differences between conditions could be hidden.
