Attenuation of lower body acceleration in overweight and healthy-weight children during running

This study aimed to identify differences in ground impact shock attenuation between overweight and healthy-weight children during running. Twenty overweight children aged 8.4 (1.1) years and 12 healthy-weight children aged 10.7 (1.3) years ran on a treadmill (120% of baseline speed) while wearing 2 inertial sensors located on their distal tibia and lower back (L3). Peak acceleration attenuation coefficient at foot contact and transfer function of the acceleration were calculated. Peak positive acceleration values were not significantly different between the overweight children and healthy-weight children (3.98 [1.17] g and 3.71 [0.84] g, respectively, P = .49). Children with healthy weight demonstrated significant greater attenuation as evident by greater peak acceleration attenuation coefficient (35.4 [19.3] and 11.9 [27.3], respectively, P < .05) and lower transfer function of the acceleration values (-3.8 [1.9] and -1.2 [1.5], respectively, P < .05). Despite the nonsignificant differences between groups in tibia acceleration at foot–ground impact that was found in the current study, the shock absorption of overweight children was reduced compared with their healthy-weight counterparts.