New publication in Arthritis Care and Research
Building on our prior work on gait features that are related to symptomatic worsening of knee osteoarthritis, in this new study, we examine the associations of gait features with the risk of structural worsening, i.e., cartilage damage, over 2-years.
We applied ensemble machine learning to wearable sensor derived-gait measures and other demographic and clinical data from participants in the Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study (n=1,703). We observed that longer step length, a modifiable gait feature, is associated with worsening cartilage damage over two years in individuals with, or at risk for, knee OA, particularly in those with more baseline cartilage damage.
Interventions to reduce step length could be considered to reduce risk of cartilage damage worsening. However, whether step length can be modified to an extent sufficient to reduce this risk needs further study.
First author: Kathy Bacon
Read full-text here.