Recruiting

Movement Retraining

Sponsor:

Stanford University

Code:

NCT06208631

Conditions

Osteoarthritis, Knee

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Interventions

Gait retraining

Study Details

Brief summary:

This study investigates how well individuals with knee osteoarthritis can learn to alter their calf muscle activation using haptic biofeedback while walking and evaluates how these changes affect knee loading.

Prior research has utilized musculoskeletal simulations to determine that reducing the activation of one of the calf muscles, the gastrocnemius, can have a large impact on reducing knee loading. However, this has not been tested in individuals with knee osteoarthritis. In this study, participants will be trained to alter the activation of their gastrocnemius muscle, by receiving haptic feedback after each step. The feedback will indicate how the participant changed their muscle activation relative to baseline. Some participants will train on a treadmill in the laboratory for up to two sessions, with 30 minutes of walking with feedback in each session. If a participant can learn to adjust their muscle activation in the first training session, they will be able to complete the second training session. Other participants will train outside the laboratory for one session with 30 minutes of walking with feedback to investigate changes in knee loading while using the new walking strategy during over-ground walking.

The movement data collected during the training sessions will be used as inputs to computer simulations of the musculoskeletal system to determine if walking with the new muscle activation strategy reduces knee loading.

Conditions

Osteoarthritis, Knee

Study ID

NCT06208631

Start date

Jan 18, 2024

Status verified date

Oct, 2025

Completion date

Dec, 2026

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Dec, 2026

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Medial and/or lateral compartment knee osteoarthritis
  • Diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis of at least six months duration
  • Ambulatory without aids
  • Able to walk for at least 60 minutes
  • Typical pain rating of 1-4 on scale of 0-10
  • Able to reduce gastrocnemius muscle activation by 10% from baseline

Exclusion Criteria:

  • History of symptomatic arthritis in lower limb joints other than the knees
  • Replacement of any lower extremity joint
  • Symptoms originating from the patellofemoral joint
  • Body mass index equal to or greater than 35
  • Nerve or muscle disease associated with walking difficulty
  • History of rheumatoid arthritis, gout, or autoimmune disease
  • History of lower limb fracture or surgery requiring hospitalization
  • Pregnant

Study Design

Enrollment

31 participants

Anticipated

Intervention Model

Single group

Primary purpose

Other

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Gait modification

Participants will learn to change muscle coordination while walking through real-time haptic biofeedback based on the activation of the gastrocnemius muscle

Interventions

Gait retraining

Changing muscle coordination while walking

Primary outcome measure

  • Change from baseline in knee contact force [ Time Frame: Evaluated during the 30 minutes of feedback walking in the second in-lab session and out-of-lab session ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Study Team

650-721-2547oawalking@lists.stanford.edu

Locations

Stanford Human Performance Lab

Recruiting

Stanford, California, United States, 94305

Contacts

Scott D Uhlrich, PhD

650-721-2547oawalking@lists.stanford.edu

More Information

Sponsor

Stanford University

Last update posted

Jun 23, 2026

Last verified

Oct, 2025

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Stanford University on 2026-06-23.