Biofeedback Gait Retraining Reduces Impact Loading During Walking: 1814 June 2, 2: 30 PM - 2: 45 PM.

High impact loading during walking has been associated with knee osteoarthritis (OA). It has been suggested that individuals with painful knee OA walk slower in order to reduce their impacts and their symptoms. However, such modification compromises gait performance. Studies have shown that impact loading during running can be reduced with gait retraining. This has not been examined in walking. PURPOSE: To examine the effects of a walk retraining program aimed at reducing impacts during landing. METHODS: 12 healthy adults (5 males, 26.1±8.1 years) walked normally on an instrumented treadmill at 1.25 m/s with an accelerometer attached to the heel counter of their right shoe. Accelerometry and force data were sampled at 1,000 Hz. Subjects then underwent 8 sessions of retraining over 2 weeks. They were provided with real-time feedback on their acceleration. They were asked to reduce peak values to below a target of 80% of their baseline peak accelerations by landing softer. Walk time increased from 10-30 minutes and feedback was gradually removed over the last 4 sessions. Accelerometry and force data were again collected following the retraining. Speed was maintained for the training sessions, and the pre and post assessments. The peak positive acceleration (PPA), along with the vertical impact peak (VIP) of the ground reaction force data were extracted and averaged over the 3-minute assessment session before and after retraining. RESULTS: PPA and the VIP were both significantly reduced following the retraining (Table 1). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest impact loading during walking can be lowered with gait retraining, without compromising gait speed. Future studies will involve individuals experiencing knee pain related to OA.Table 1: Peak positive acceleration and vertical impact peak before and after gait retraining