Author(s)

He Wang¹, Scott Dueball²

¹School of Kinesiology, Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA.
²Life Fitness Inc., Franklin Park, IL, USA.

Athletes and military recruits are often afflicted by stress fractures. Rigorous training programs consisting of increased repetitive mechanical loading may contribute to the high incidence of tibia stress fracture in the athletic and army populations. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of incremented height on tibia bone strains and strain rates during landing. Seven healthy college males performed drop-landing tasks from 26 cm, 39 cm, and 52 cm, respectively. Tibia bone strains and strain rates were obtained through subject-specific multi-body dynamic computer simulations and finite element analyses. One-way repeated measures ANOVAs were conducted. Both 39 cm and 52 cm conditions resulted in larger tibia bone strains and strain rates than the 26 cm condition. The 52 cm condition also resulted in greater bone strains and strain rates than the 39 cm condition. A dose-response relationship exists between incremented landing height and bone strains and strain rates. Activities consisting of high impact landings are associated with increased risk of developing tibia stress fracture. When designing training programs involved high impact activities, athletes and military recruits should consider the effect of impact loading on tibia bone health and giving enough time for bones to adapt to new trainings.

Stress Fracture, Bone Strain, Drop-Landing, Tibia Bone

Wang, H. and Dueball, S. (2017) The Effect of Drop-Landing Height on Tibia Bone Strain. Journal of Biomedical Science and Engineering, 10, 10-20. doi: 10.4236/jbise.2017.101002.