Characterizing the Learning Effect in Response to Biofeedback Aimed at Reducing Tibial Acceleration during Running

Abstract

Increased tibial acceleration has been found to be an important risk factor for tibial stress fractures. Interventions aimed at reducing this variable which found a beneficial effect include the use of biofeedback in gait retraining. However, no studies have focused on the time participants take to modify tibial acceleration, therefore we aimed to find the start of a learning plateau in this study. Six participants ran on a treadmill while multisensory feedback was given. A single-subject analysis was used to characterise the learning effects. All participants changed peak tibial acceleration within the first step of running in the feedback condition. Two participants further reduced tibial acceleration to reach a plateau within 120 steps. In four of the six participants a strong effect of the feedback was still present after a week. Further research is needed to optimise the use of biofeedback in reducing the prevalence of tibial stress fractures.

Keywords

• Gait retraining
• real-time feedback
• tibial acceleration
• stress fracture