AbstractThe purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of obesity on the acceleration and attenuation rates of upper body segments during walking. The subjects of this study were 21 men in their 20s to 40s with a BMI of 26 kg/㎡ or more who had no orthopedic or neurological history. Subjects were classified into gynoid type(11 people, <0.9) and android type(10 people, >0.9) based on the WHR value of 0.9. The subjects walked a 6m walking path while maintaining their self gait speed, and the upper body acceleration and attenuation rate were analyzed. As a result, the gynoid group had significantly larger RMS acceleration in the left and right directions of the head segment compared to the android group (p<.05). The android group had higher front-to-back RMS acceleration values than the gynoid group (p<.05). In addition, the head segment's attenuation rate was higher in the gynoid group when walking (p<.05) as compared to the android group. Therefore, the type of obesity did not significantly alter the upper body segment acceleration techniques used in this investigation during walking. Yet, it was established that the obese body type-specific(gynoid and android) affect the control of head acceleration while walking.