Assessing inter-joint coordination during gait in hip osteoarthritis

Hip osteoarthritis (HOA) often leads to compensatory movements such as trunk lateral bending during gait due to pain and restricted range of motion. Because multiple joints coordinate to control the center of mass (CoM) during walking, quantitatively assessing compensatory strategies is essential to understand HOA pathology and to develop rehabilitation programs. Traditional indices do not adequately evaluate multi-joint coordination. However, Uncontrolled Manifold (UCM) analysis enables assessment of multiple-joint utilization to control CoM in HOA. This study aimed to investigate differences in inter-joint coordination between patients with HOA and controls by focusing on frontal-plane CoM control during gait using UCM analysis.

We extracted data from a public gait dataset for 80 asymptomatic individuals and 106 patients with HOA. Segment angles were treated as elemental variables and frontal-plane CoM as the performance variable in UCM analysis. The variance of elemental variables that did not affect the performance variable was defined as V_UCM; the variance of those that did was defined as V_ORT. The synergy index (ΔV_Z) was calculated and compared between groups.

Compared with asymptomatic individuals, patients with HOA showed significantly higher V_UCM and V_ORT (p < 0.05). However, ΔV_Z did not differ significantly (p > 0.05).

Despite the increases in V_UCM and V_ORT, ΔV_Z remained at a consistent level. These findings suggest that patients with HOA control CoM by utilizing multiple joints, reflecting altered movement patterns associated with hip dysfunction. These results may inform rehabilitation planning and outcome evaluation that consider motor-control characteristics in HOA.