The effect of corrective exercise on walking ground reaction force components in children with genu varus

Genu varus is one of the malalignment of the lower limbs, the failure to correct it leads to secondary abnormalities in adulthood. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a corrective exercise program on ground reaction forces, loading rates, impulses and free moment during stance phase of walking. 17 children with genu varus were volunteered to participate in this study (Age:11.71±1.68 years, Height:1.40±0.09 meter, Weight:35.14±11.47 Kg, and BMI:17.49±3.61Kg/M2). Ground reaction forces were recorded with two Kisler force plates during pre and post-test. At the dominant limb, the amount of time to peak in the mediolateral ground reaction force component during heel contact decreased by of 61.90% (P=0.011). Also, the time to peak of the vertical ground reaction force component during mid-stance tend to increase significantly by 11.47% during the post-test compared to the pre-test (P=0.063). The values of peak ground reaction force components, loading rate, impulse and free moment did not show any significant differences between pre and post-test. The findings showed that the corrective exercise trainings used in the present study had the most effect on the time to peak components of the GRF, but there were no significant effects on the loading rate, impulses, and free moment components. The corrective exercises used in the present study have had the most effect on the time to peak of ground reaction forces and improve them. On the other hand, these exercises did not have any significant effect on the vertical loading rate, impact and free moment values.