Characteristics of hip joint reaction forces during a range of activities

The paper reports the characteristics of joint forces for 9 activities in 18 normal healthy subjects. Activities included Walk, Walk Turn, Stand to Sit, Sit to Stand, Squat, Stand Reach, Kneel Reach, Lunge, and Golf Swing. Within the cohort similar to 30% variability occurred in the manner in which each activity was completed. Within the activities the average maximum load characteristics varied in magnitude (0.5-6.4 pBWT) and also in duration (0.96-5.89 s.) when compared to walking (3.1 pBWT,1.1 s.). The corresponding impulse ranged from 1.6 during the Walk to 6.7 p.BWT.s for the Golf Swing . As high loads with low sliding velocities have been shown in the literature to be damaging to the tribology of compliant contact surfaces the findings are postulated by the authors to be specifically important for the pre-clinical testing of cartilage substitutional materials. Note: Force was normalized to body weight (pBWT) throughout the study.

Automated summary

This paper examines the joint force characteristics of 9 activities performed by 18 normal healthy subjects. The manner in which each activity was completed varied by approximately 30% within the cohort. The average maximum load and duration of the activities differed from walking, and the findings are important for testing cartilage substitutional materials.