Influences of knee osteoarthritis and walking difficulty on knee kinematics and kinetics.

Background: Self-reported walking difficulty is a problem among patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA), however, these patients have never been studied as a subgroup population.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine known knee OA gait mechanics among those with knee OA, with (Diff) and without (NoDiff) self-reported walking difficulty, as compared to age- and sex-matched controls without knee OA.

Methods: A total of 39 subjects in three groups of 13 individuals walked at a controlled gait speed during instrumented gait analysis.