Sydney Ahart presenting at Central States ACSM Conference

Author: Sydney Ahart | Major: Exercise Science | Semester: Spring 2023

During the spring 2023 grant term, I worked with my mentor, Dr. Kaitlin Gallagher, to collect data on walking mechanics of individuals who have had a previous knee injury and individuals who have not had a previous knee injury. Being an Exercise Science major in the Department of Health, Human Performance, and Recreation this topic is very relevant to me and my future career goals. I aspire to be a physical therapist and the knowledge I gain from this study will help me to understand my patients’ conditions and treat them better in the future.

Knee injuries can affect activities of daily living and cause pain, limited range of motion, muscle weakness, knee instability, and altered gait patterns. Altered gait patterns due to injury can cause pain in other joints and even neuromuscular disease in patients. I was interested in getting involved in this study to learn more about gait patterns and how they are affected by injuries. By completing this study and understanding how an injury can impact future health, adverse effects such as pain and disease can potentially be mitigated or eliminated.

For this study, a markerless 3D motion capture system was used to measure the gait variables of each participant as they walk down a 30-meter hallway. Each participant walked through the motion capture system six times and the temporal-spatial gait variables such as walking speed and stride length were averaged. All participants also completed a survey where they were asked about any previous knee injuries. They were split into groups based on the answer to that question. T-tests were used to assess differences between the groups for demographic variables with a significance level of p<.05. There were no significant differences between the injury groups for age, height, and mass of the temporal-spatial variables.

Based on the 12 participants’ data that we collected, having a previous knee injury did not influence temporal-spatial variables. This follows previous research. This semester, I had the opportunity to present this research at a conference. I went to the Central States American College of Sports Medicine conference in Tulsa, OK. It was great experience for me to share with others what I have learned from my research.

My mentor reached out to me because I was enrolled in one of her exercise science classes, and she thought I would be a good candidate for her research lab. I met with Dr. Gallagher to learn more about her work, and I was immediately interested in working in her lab. The cool thing about my honors research is that it is just one small piece of a study that involves many components. Our study is also looking at pain development during prolonged activities like standing and walking and how previous injuries affect that pain. The data we are collecting involves many variables that can be used in future research.

I have learned so much during my research here at the University of Arkansas. I have learned the proper research methods and what conducting research looks like. This will be extremely helpful to me in my future career as a physical therapist. Part of being a physical therapist is empirical practice, which means taking research and applying it in practice. Being involved in research has excited me for the future research I will be doing as a clinician. I am looking forward to beginning PT school in the fall and using my research experiences to help me in my future career.