Lower limb kinematics and kinetics of people with knee osteoarthritis during inclined and level treadmill gait

3D gait analysis provides insight into the lower limb biomechanics of knee osteoarthritis. We hypothesized that stressing the locomotor system through walking on an incline would amplify biomechanical differences in gait between participants with osteoarthritis and asymptomatic controls. Nineteen participants with osteoarthritis and 21 controls performed walking trials on a level and a 10% inclined treadmill. A musculoskeletal model was used to estimate lower limb kinematics and kinetics and knee contact forces in OpenSim. Principal component analysis was used to analyse the resulting waveform data. Group differences were similar to those found in previous studies. Inclined walking affected gait biomechanics, but differences between osteoarthritis and control groups were not amplified. A different task may have more success in stressing the locomotor system to reveal additional biomechanical differences.