Musculoskeletal (MSK) lower limb models are widely used to predict the resultant contact force in the hip joint as a non-invasive alternative to instrumented implants. Previous MSK models based on rigid body assumptions treated the hip joint as an ideal sphere with only three rotational degrees of freedom (DOFs). An MSK model that considered force-dependent kinematics (FDK) with three additional translational DOFs was developed and validated in the present study by comparing it with a previous experimental measurement. A 32-mm femoral head against a polyethylene cup was considered in the MSK model for calculating the contact forces. The changes in the main modelling 28 parameters were found to have little influence on the hip joint forces (RDPV<10 BW%, mean trial deviation<20 BW%). The centre of the hip joint translation was more sensitive to the changes in the main modelling parameters, especially muscle recruitment type (RDPV<20%, mean trial deviation<0.02 mm). The predicted hip contact forces (HCFs) showed consistent profiles, compared with the experimental measurements, except in the lateral-medial direction. The ratio-average analysis, based on the Bland and Altman’s plots, showed better limits of agreement (LOA) in climbing stairs (mean LOA: -2.0 to 6.3 in walking, mean LOA: -0.5 to 3.1 in climbing stairs). Better agreement of the predicted HCFs was also found during the stance phase. The FDK approach underestimated the maximum hip contact force by a mean value of 6.68 ±1.75% BW compared with the experimental measurements. The predicted maximum translations of the hip joint centres were 0.125 ± 0.03 mm in level walking and 0.123 ± 0.005 mm in climbing stairs.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)