Comparison of speed of walking with and without visual distraction in subjects with Osteoarthritis of knee

Introduction: Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a major public health problem. Knee OA leads to impaired balance and reduction in speed of walking, which is accentuated under dual-task conditions. Walking relies on continuous visual processing to obstacles as one navigates through a visually defined environment. Objectives: The study aimed to compare the speed of walking with and without visual distraction in subjects with OA knee and with normal individuals. Material and methods: Fifteen subjects with OA knee and 15 without OA knee of same age and gender were selected. Subjects were selected according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Experiment was carried out over straight path of 50 m length and 2.5 m width. Subjects walked on two consecutive days at preferred speed 3 times back and forth covering total distance of 300 m. Charts were shown on either of the two days. Subjects passed 12 times through charts of various objects held by two assistants. Some objects were kept upright or inverted and subjects needed to reply by saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Charts of various colors were also shown and they were asked to identify them. The speed was noted. They also walked same distance without distraction. Level of significance will be kept at 5%. Results: Wilcoxon test was used for within group analysis for speed of walking with and without distraction. Significant difference was seen for both subjects with OA knee (W=-2.897, p=0.004) and normal subjects (W=-3.266, p=0.001). Mann Whitney U test was used for between groups analysis. With distraction groups showed significant difference (W=-2.219, p=0.026). But there was no significant difference in analysis in between groups without distraction (W=-1.701, p=0.089). Conclusion: Visual distraction leads to reduction in speed of walking in subjects with OA knee as compared to normal subjects.