SAT-098 Altered Metabolism in Obese Adolescents as a Factor for Gait Modification

Recent years’ statistics suggest that the obese adolescents of today are the obese adults of tomorrow. Literature indicates that obesity has multiple biochemical and mechanical effects on body systems, including the musculoskeletal system. These deleterious effects are positively correlated with altered patterns of muscular loading and unloading. Modified musculoskeletal biomechanics is then associated with altered gait. While the topic of adult obese gait has been studied rather thoroughly, there is a scarcity of information concerning gait of obese adolescents. This study examined the effect of increased body adiposity on adolescent gait. Thirty teenagers (13-19 years old) were recruited from local schools and weight loss programs; 10 of them had normal BMI, 10 were overweight, and 10 were obese. Participants walked and ran on a treadmill with force plates under its belt. Rhythm, pace, base of support, phase and variability gait parameters were measured for each trial for each participant. The study found that weight acceptance peak force and push-off peak force, when normalized by body weight, was significantly lower in obese adolescents. In addition, among other altered gait parameters, stance time was increased, and step length was decreased in obese teenagers. These changes suggest that muscular loading and unloading in obese teenagers is, in fact, transformed and results in adaptations that obese individuals take to reduce the energy expenditure during locomotion. Such adaptations, while seemingly allowing for locomotion adjustment in short-term, might perpetuate pathology of musculoskeletal and other systems if obese adolescents remain obese as adults.