The main purpose of the study was to explore the effects of carrying police equipment on spatiotemporal and kinetic gait parameters. Two-hundred and seventy-five healthy men and women attending police academy (32% women) were randomly recruited. Gait analysis without and with a police equipment load (≈3.5 kg) was analyzed using the Zebris pressure platform. Differences and effect sizes were calculated using a Student t-test and Wilcoxon test for dependent samples and Cohen's D statistics. In both men and women, carrying police equipment significantly increased the foot rotation (effect size 0.13-0.25), step width (0.13-0.33), step time (0.25), stride time (0.13-0.25) and peak plantar pressure beneath the forefoot (0.16-0.30), midfoot (0.15-0.32) and hindfoot (0.13-0.25) region of the foot. Significant reductions in the step length (0.12-0.25), stride length (0.14-0.23), cadence (0.15-0.28) and walking speed (0.20-0.22) were observed in both sexes. Although significant, the effect sizes were mostly trivial in men and small in women. Our study shows significant changes in the spatiotemporal and kinetic gait parameters when carrying police equipment for both men and women. Although the effect sizes are trivial to small, carrying police equipment of ≈3.5 kg may have a negative impact on gait characteristics in first-year police officers.
Keywords: distribution; force; load; special population; walking.