LAUSR

Background Aberrant walking‐gait and jump‐landing biomechanics may influence the development of post‐traumatic osteoarthritis and increase the risk of a second anterior cruciate ligament injury, respectively. It remains unknown if individuals who demonstrate altered walking‐gait biomechanics demonstrate similar altered biomechanics during jump‐landing. Our aim was to determine associations in peak knee biomechanics and limb‐symmetry indices between walking‐gait and jump‐landing tasks in individuals with a unilateral anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Methods Thirty‐five individuals (74% women, 22.1 [3.4] years old, 25 [3.89] kg/m2) with an anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction performed 5‐trials of self‐selected walking‐gait and jump‐landing. Peak kinetics and kinematics were extracted from the first 50% of stance phase during walking‐gait and first 100 ms following ground contact for jump‐landing. Pearson product‐moment (r) and Spearman's Rho (&rgr;) analyses were used to evaluate relationships between outcome measures. Significance was set a priori (P ≤ 0.05). Findings All associations between walking‐gait and jump‐landing for the involved limb, along with the majority of associations for limb‐symmetry indices and the uninvolved limb, were negligible and non‐statistically significant. There were weak significant associations for instantaneous loading rate (&rgr; = 0.39, P = 0.02) and peak knee abduction angle (&rgr; = 0.36, p = 0.03) uninvolved limb, as well as peak abduction displacement limb‐symmetry indices (&rgr;= − 0.39, p = 0.02) between walking‐gait and jump‐landing. Interpretation No systematic associations were found between walking‐gait and jump‐landing biomechanics for either limb or limb‐symmetry indices in people with unilateral anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Individuals with an anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction who demonstrate high‐involved limb loading or asymmetries during jump‐landing may not demonstrate similar biomechanics during walking‐gait. HighlightsAltered kinetics and kinematics observed following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction may be task dependent.Individuals with greater peak biomechanics during walking do not demonstrate greater peak biomechanics during jump‐landing.Asymmetrical walking does not correlate with asymmetrical jump‐landing following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.