VOLUME 6 - NUMBER 2 - 2026
Multimodal assessment of compensatory strategies during sit-to-stand
in knee osteoarthritis
-
Letizia Mancini, Arianna Carnevale, Giovanni Spallone, Carla Antonacci, Stefano Campi, Carlo Massaroni, Rocco Papalia, Emiliano Schena, Umile Giuseppe Longo
-
Concise reviews, 87-91
-
Full text PDF
-
-
Sit-to-stand (STS) is one of the most frequently performed daily tasks and a key functional test to evaluate mobility and neuromuscular performance in individuals with knee osteoarthritis (KOA). While clinical STS tests mainly quantify performance through time or repetition counts, these metrics do not capture how the task is executed or the biomechanical and neuromuscular adaptations that sustain task completion. This review summarizes the main compensatory mechanisms observed during STS in KOA and discusses how they can be quantified as biomarkers to support functional assessment and clinically relevant prediction. Across the STS phases, KOA is commonly associated with increased anterior trunk flexion to redistribute mechanical demand toward the hip, interlimb loading asymmetry with reduced contribution of the affected limb and greater reliance on the contralateral side, and neuromuscular adaptations such as delayed quadriceps activation and increased antagonist co-contraction that may enhance perceived stability but increase compressive loading. Upper limb assistance is also frequently adopted, providing additional impulse and reducing lower limb joint moments. Quantitative assessment using kinematics, kinetics, and surface electromyography, potentially integrated through multimodal approaches, offers a pathway to characterize heterogeneous compensatory profiles and track change over time.
-
KEY WORDS: Biomechanics, sit-to-stand, osteoarthritis, compensatory strategies, knee.
