Evaluation of the Energy Expenditure during Walking in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Patients

Scoliosis is one of the musculoskeletal disorders which influences the energy expenditure of patients during walking. In previous studies, metabolic cost of walking measured by oxymetry. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the energy expenditure of walking of the adolescent idiopathic scoliosis patients by use of monitoring the heart rate. This was observational comparative cross sectional study. Ten scoliotic patients and 10 normal subjects with comparable age, height and weight were recruited for this study. Energy consumption of walking in scoliotic and in normal subjects was evaluated using polar Electro Finland heart rate monitor. The heart rate during resting and walking and the walking speed were the parameters used for energy consumption based on the physiological cost index. The energy consumption of scoliotic subjects during walking based on PCI and THBI was higher than that of normal subjects, however, the difference was not statistically significant (p>0.05). The results of this research showed that there was no significant difference between the PCI and THB index of normal and scoliotic subjects. Moreover, the walking speed of scoliotic patients did not influence by spinal deformation (p>0.05).