Table 2.
Ratio of forces (RF) in percentage of horizontal to resultant ground reaction force (GRF), non-normalized and normalized (to body mass) absolute horizontal GRF and the ankle joint stiffness on the ascending and descending limb (mean ± s.d.). P-values are shown for young–adult comparison and not for ascending–descending limb stiffness comparison (p-value for this comparison was less than 0.001). Values in italics are significant p-values.
| parameter | young | adult | p-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RF (%) | Min | −40.85 ± 20.97 | −34.41 ± 27.72 | 0.425 |
| Max | 78.00 ± 12.37a | 61.31 ± 20.75 | 0.004 | |
| Mean | 37.04 ± 6.37a | 28.49 ± 12.16 | 0.009 | |
| horizontal GRF (N) | Max | 552.91 ± 147.40 | 488.47 ± 268.16 | 0.357 |
| Mean | 333.15 ± 94.26 | 289.63 ± 163.32 | 0.314 | |
| horizontal GRF (N/kg) | Max | 9.02 ± 2.00a | 7.09 ± 3.28 | 0.034 |
| Mean | 5.43 ± 1.28a | 4.21 ± 2.04 | 0.031 | |
| ankle joint stiffness (Nm/deg) | Ascending | 7.35 ± 3.12b | 6.64 ± 2.01b | 0.430 |
| Descending | 2.85 ± 1.23 | 2.27 ± 0.62 | 0.091 |
aDifferent from adult (p < 0.05).
bdifferent from descending limb (p < 0.05).