Interactions among obesity and age-related effects on the gait pattern and muscle activity across the ankle joint

Abstract Objective The purposes of this study were to investigate the combined effects of age and obesity on gait and to analyze the relationship between age and obesity on ankle muscle activities during walking. Materials and methods 4 groups; the young non-obese control group (CG, n = 50, age = 31.8 ± 4.5 years; BMI = 21.4 ± 2.2 kg/m2), the young obese group (OB, n = 30, age = 35.4 ± 4.1 years; BMI = 38.6 ± 3.5 kg/m2), the non-obese older adults group (OA, n = 20, age = 76.1 ± 3.5 years; BMI = 24.4 ± 1.1 kg/m2) and the obese older adults group (OBOA, n = 20, age = 79.6 ± 5.7 years; BMI = 35.5 ± 2.7 kg/m2) walked on an instrumented gait analysis treadmill at their preferred walking speed. Spatiotemporal parameters, walking cycle phases, Vertical ground reaction force (GRFv) and center of pressure (CoP) velocity were sampled from the treadmill software. Electromyography (EMG) activity of the gastrocnemius medialis (GM), the soleus (SOL) and tibialis anterior (TA) were also collected during the walking test. A forward stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed to determine if body weight or age could predict ankle muscle activities during the different walking cycle phases. Results Compared to OB, OBOA walked with higher CoP velocity, shorter stride, spending more time in support phase (p  Conclusion Age in obese adults and obesity in older adults should be considered separately to evaluate neuromuscular responses during walking and, subsequently, optimize the modality of treatment and rehabilitation processes in obese individuals in order to reduce and/or prevent the risk of falls.