Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

A Novel Method for Field Measurement of Ankle Joint Stiffness in Hopping

Ghorbani Faal, Sanubar; Shirzad, Elham; Sharifnezhad, Ali; Ashrostaghi, Mojtaba; Naemi, Roozbeh

A Novel Method for Field Measurement of Ankle Joint Stiffness in Hopping Thumbnail


Authors

Sanubar Ghorbani Faal

Elham Shirzad

Ali Sharifnezhad

Mojtaba Ashrostaghi



Abstract

Stiffness of ankle joint has been investigated in a wide range of biomechanical studies with a focus on the improvement of performance and reduction in the risk of injury. However, measuring ankle joint stiffness (AJS) using the existing conventional methodologies requires sophisticated equipment such as force plate and motion analyses systems. This study presents a novel method for measuring AJS during a hopping task with no force or motion measurement system. Also the validity of the proposed new method was investigated by comparing the results against those obtained using conventional method in which motion capture and force plate data are used. Twelve participants performed the controlled hopping task at 2.2 Hz, on a force platform, and six high speed cameras recorded the movement. To calculate the AJS in both methods, the lower extremity was modeled as a three linked rigid segments robot with three joints. In the new method, the contact time and flight time were used to calculate ground reaction force, and inverse kinematic and inverse dynamic approaches were used to calculate the ankle kinematic and kinetic. The AJS calculated using the new method was compared against the results of conventional method as the reference. The calculated AJS using this new method (506.47 ± 177.84 N·m/rad) showed a significant correlation (r = 0.752) with the AJS calculated using conventional method (642.39 ± 185.96 N·m/rad). The validation test showed a mean difference of −24.76% using Bland–Altman plot. The presented method can be used as a valid, and low-cost tool for assessing AJS in the field in low resource settings.

Citation

Ghorbani Faal, S., Shirzad, E., Sharifnezhad, A., Ashrostaghi, M., & Naemi, R. (2021). A Novel Method for Field Measurement of Ankle Joint Stiffness in Hopping. Applied Sciences, 11(24), https://doi.org/10.3390/app112412140

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Dec 15, 2021
Publication Date Dec 20, 2021
Deposit Date Apr 14, 2024
Publicly Available Date Apr 15, 2024
Journal Applied Sciences
Publisher MDPI
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 11
Issue 24
DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/app112412140