EFFECTS OF A TWELVE-WEEK WEIGHT REDUCTION EXERCISE PROGRAMME ON SELECTED SPATIOTEMPORAL GAIT PARAMETERS IN OBESE INDIVIDUALS

Abstract

Obesity, a global clinical and public health challenge, has been documented to negatively affect spatiotemporal gait parameters. Although, weight reduction exercise programme is routinely used in the management of obesity, it has not been well documented if such intervention leads to improvement in spatiotemporal gait parameters. This study was carried out to investigate the effects of a twelve-week weight reduction exercise programme on selected spatiotemporal gait parameters of obese individuals and compare with those of their normal weight counterparts. In this quasi-experimental study, 60 participants (30 obese and 30 age-matched normal weight individuals) were recruited and assigned into obese and normal weight groups respectively but only 58 participants (30 obese and 28 normal-weights) completed it. Obese participants had 12-weeks of weight reduction exercises while normal weight participants did not. Gait parameters: Walking Speed (WS), Cadence (CD), Step Length (SL), Step Width (SW) and Stride Length (SLT) were measured at baseline and at the end of weeks 4, 8 and 12 of the study. The data were summarized using descriptive statistics and further analysed using Repeated measures ANOVA and independent t-test at alpha level set at 0.05. The ages of the Obese group (OBG) and normal weight group (NWG) (32.0± 8.26 years and 29.32± 6.06 years) were comparable but obese participants weighed significantly more and were significantly shorter than their normal weight counterparts. At baseline, the OBG had significantly lower WS (1.09± 0.17m/s; 1.29 ± 0.17 m/s), SL (58.68± 7.42cm; 66.42± 6.51cm) and SLT (117±14.86 cm; 133±13.02 cm) but higher CD (14.47± 0.97steps/min; 12.82± 0.39steps/min) and SW (13.67±4.15 cm; 9.79± 1.78 cm) than the NW group. At week 12, the group’s WS (1.35±0.19 m/s; 1.35±0.32 m/s), SL (66.83±7.81cm; 67.91±6.53cm), SLT (134±16.68 cm; 136±13.10 cm), CD (12.77± 0.63step/min; 12.82±0.39 steps/min) and SW (8.81±1.81cm; 9.55±1.80cm) for OBG and NWG respectively were not significantly different. Within-group comparison however showed that the WS, SL and SLT in obese group were significantly increased while CD and SW decreased significantly across the four time points of the study. The 12-week weight reduction exercise programme produced significant effects in the spatiotemporal gait parameters of the obese individuals to a level comparable to that in normal weight individuals. It is therefore recommended that weight reduction exercise programme should be adopted to improve spatiotemporal gait parameters of individuals presenting with obesity related problems.