A team of researchers conducted a study to examine the effect of standing and sitting positions on energy expenditure in people with transtibial amputations compared with matched controls. The results indicated that energy expenditure in standing, when measured relative to energy expenditure in sitting, is significantly greater in people with amputations.
Energy expenditure data from people with unilateral transtibial amputation due to nondysvascular causes were compared with data from age- and sex-matched controls without amputations. Energy expenditure was defined as the mean volumetric rate of oxygen consumed over the last two of five minutes in each position and measured with a portable breath-by-breath metabolic analyzer.
The participants with amputations showed a significantly greater increase in standing energy expenditure relative to sitting energy expenditure (26.2 percent) than did controls (13.4 percent).
The study, “Effect of standing and sitting positions on energy expenditure in people with transtibial amputation compared to age- and sex-matched controls,” was published in Prosthetics and Orthotics International.
