The Effect of Handrail Use on Knee Joint Kinetics When Negotiating Stairs

Approximately 80% of US children and adults do not get adequate amounts of daily physical activity[1]. Meyer et al., (2010) demonstrated that taking the stairs at work can increase daily physical activity, and improve multiple health measures, amongst inactive adults[2]. The use of a handrail is common to improve self-efficacy of stair negotiation[3], but little research has been done to investigate how the use of a handrail effects the biomechanics of stair walking. The purpose of this study was to develop a critical understanding of the effect handrail use has on knee joint biomechanics during stair negotiation in healthy young adults. Five individuals (height:1.73+0.11 m, weight:65.11+10.34 kg, Age:25.2+5.72) participated in both stair ascent and stair descent walking trials involving three handrail conditions: 1) no support, 2) light support, and 3) self-selected handrail use. Force plate data were used to calculate sagittal plane knee joint moment during both stair ascent and stair descent. A one-way repeated measures analysis of variance test was performed to determine differences between handrail conditions. No significant differences were found in peak knee extension moment (p=0.14) or peak knee flexion moment (p=0.43) during stair ascent. Similarly, no significant differences were found between conditions for the first (p=0.36) or second (p=0.60) knee extension moment peak during stair descent. However, this abstract only includes preliminary findings from a pilot sample and results should be interpreted cautiously. Future research is needed to determine the effect of handrail use on knee joint kinetics in other populations