Investigation of joint contact forces during walking in the subjects with toe in gait due to increasing in femoral head anteversion angle

Toe-in gait is a pathology in which the child walks and turns the foot inward instead of pointing straight ahead. The alignment of the lower limb structure changes in this disease, increasing the incidence of knee and hip osteoarthritis. This study aimed to determine the kinematic and joint loading in subjects walking with a toe-in gait pattern. This study selected two groups of subjects: normal subjects and those with toe-in gait due to an increased femoral head anteversion angle (each group consisted of 15 subjects). A Qualisys motion analysis system and a Kistler force plate were used to record the motions and forces applied to the leg while walking. OpenSim software (version 3.3) was used to analyze the range of motion, moments, muscle forces, and joint contact forces in both groups of subjects. The mean values of stride length for normal subjects (1.1 ± 0.141 m) and those with toe-in gait (0.94 ± 0.183 m) differed significantly. The mediolateral component of the ground reaction force decreased significantly in the toe-in gait group compared to normal subjects ( p-value = 0.05). The peak force of most of the hip joint muscles increased significantly in those with toe-in gait compared to normal subjects ( p-value < 0.05). The results of this study showed that those with toe-in gait, due to an increase in femoral head anteversion angle, only had a change in rotation of the pelvic and hip joint. There was no significant difference between walking speed and most ground reaction force components between normal subjects and those with toe-in gait. As the peaks of most of the hip joint muscles increased significantly in the toe-in gait group, this increased joint contact forces (especially the anteroposterior component of the hip joint and the mediolateral component of the knee joint), which may ultimately increase the incidence of hip and knee joint osteoarthritis.