Cinética da locomoção infantil: momentos articulares durante o andar / Kinetica of the children locomotion: joint moments during walking

RESUMO

Children establish their mature walking patterns at approximately five years of age (SUTHERLAND et ai. 1 988), but there are evidences that gait parameters alter with growth. There are few publications about three-dimensional joint kinetics in children. The purpose of this study was to provide data for three-dimensional joint moments during walking in children of six to tenyears old and compare them to adult patterns. Twenty-two healthy children (thirteen girls and nine boys) participated voluntarily in this study. They were dívided into four groups (6-7, 8, 9 and 1O years old) to investigate age-related differences in walking characteristics. Data were obtained using four video cameras synchronized with two force plates in a motion analysis system. Segment parameters, kinematic measurements, and ground reaction force were used to calculate joint moments with the inverse dynamics method. The aspect of curves and coefficient of variation for hip, knee and ankle moments were compared between groups. Walking patterns as observed in joint moment curves for children of six to ten years old are similar to adult and children data previously published in the literature. Higher variability was found for moments in ankle frontal plane. Some differences were found for magnitude in the ten-year-old group. These results provide objective data that can help to understand the human locomotion process in normal and pathological gait.