Gait retraining as a non-invasive prospective approach to restore mechanical loading at the knee joint and slowing down knee osteoarthritis (OA) progression shows great promise. However, the impact of gait modifications such as an increase in foot progression angle (FPA) or lateral trunk lean (LTL) on the ankle and hip is not yet well understood. Thus, the goal of this study is to provide insight on the impact of FPA and LTL on the sagittal and frontal external moments at the ankle and hip of healthy participants. We hypothesize that there is an optimum, for which an increase in FPA and/or LTL minimize the knee adduction moment (KAM) without increasing significantly the frontal and sagittal external moments at the ankle and hip during gait. To test this hypothesis, 23 participants performed walking trials with modified FPA and/or LTL angles following a real-time visual feedback. The hypothesis was not confirmed and while not all the gait modifications performed by the participants in this study reduced the KAM, they significantly increased the sagittal moment at the ankle and the frontal moment at the hip. This study highlights the importance to consider the biomechanical consequences of gait modifications on the ankle and hip before considering a clinical application of gait retraining approaches.

步态再训练作为一种非侵入性的前瞻性方法来恢复膝关节的机械负荷并减缓膝关节骨性关节炎 (OA) 的进展显示出巨大的希望。然而，步态改变的影响，例如足部前进角 (FPA) 或躯干侧倾 (LTL) 的增加，对脚踝和臀部的影响尚不清楚。因此，本研究的目的是深入了解 FPA 和 LTL 对健康参与者脚踝和臀部的矢状和正面外部力矩的影响。我们假设存在一个最佳值，即 FPA 和/或 LTL 的增加可以最大限度地减少膝关节内收力矩 (KAM)，而不会显着增加步态过程中脚踝和髋部的正面和矢状外力矩。为了检验这个假设，23 名参与者根据实时视觉反馈进行了修改 FPA 和/或 LTL 角度的步行试验。该假设并未得到证实，虽然并非本研究参与者进行的所有步态修改都减少了 KAM，但他们显着增加了脚踝的矢状力矩和臀部的正面力矩。这项研究强调了在考虑步态再训练方法的临床应用之前考虑步态改变对脚踝和臀部的生物力学后果的重要性。