The Kinematics Gait Pattern Analysis of Thin, Normal and Obese Children

Objective: Obesity is associated with numerous health problems such as dyslipidemia, hypertension, type II diabetes, cerebrovascular diseases, and coronary heart diseases. Gait as an effective factor in controlling obesity is very important in human motor development. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of obesity and slimming on the gait kinematics in children. Methods: Thirty student boys with the age of 7-9, based on weight –age percentile and body mass index were divided to three normal, thin and overweight groups. All the children were healthy and had no physical abnormality. The 3D motion analysis was used for measuring gait parameters such as walking speed, stride length, stride width, single support phase duration, double support and swing phase duration. ANOVA was run for the purpose of data analysis. Result: The findings indicated that there not significant differences between walking speed (0/056), stride length (0/164) and stride width (0/126) in normal, thin and obese children, but there were significant differences in swing phase (0/004), single support (0/001) and double support (0/008) phases duration, between normal, thin and obese children and that obesity can affect some of the spatiotemporal parameters in children’s gait which can cause changes in obese children’s gait patterns. Conclusion: The results of this study have shown that when the movement system is under pressure, some kinematics gait factors may change which can help better movement control