Floor reaction forces during gait: comparison of patients with hip disease and normal subjects

Abstract

Ten normal subjects and twenty-one patients severely involved with hip disease were used in this study in which the purpose was to describe and compare floor reaction forces and to compare temporal and distance factors of gait between patients and normal persons walking at two different rates. A force platform, foot switches, recorder, and walkway with grid were used to obtain the data. Cadence, velocity, and stride length for normals were generally twice that of the patients with hip disease while many of the results for temporal and distance factors and floor reaction forces were similar between the patients with hip disease and the normals who walked at a slow rate.