title: Control conditions for footwear insole and orthotic research.
abstract: Footwear insoles/orthotics alter variables associated with musculoskeletal injury; however, their clinical effectiveness is inconclusive. One explanation for this is the possibility that control conditions may actually produce biomechanical changes that induce clinical responses. The purpose of this study was to compare insole/orthotic control conditions to identify if variables at the ground, ankle and knee that are associated with injury are altered relative to what participants would normally experience in their own shoes. Gait analysis was performed on 15 participants during walking and running while wearing (1) their own shoes, (2) #1 with a 3mm flat insole, (3) a standardized shoe, and (4) #3 with a 3mm flat insole, where external knee adduction moments, external knee adduction angular impulses, internal ankle inversion moments, and vertical ground reaction force loading rates were determined. Conditions 2-4 were expressed as percent changes relative to condition 1, and tests of proportions assessed if there were a significant number of individuals experiencing a biomechanically relevant change for each variable. Repeated-measures ANOVAs were used to identify group differences between conditions. The majority of movement-footwear-variable combinations contained a proportion of individuals experiencing biomechanically relevant changes compared to condition 1 that was significantly greater than the expected proportion of 20%. No systematic differences were found between conditions. This suggests that conditions 2-4 may alter biomechanics relative to baseline for many participants, but not in a consistent way across participants. It is recommended that participant's own footwear be used as control conditions in future trials where biomechanics are primary variables of interest.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada. Electronic address: lewinson@ucalgary.ca.
authors.forename: Ryan T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Lewinson
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Nike Sport Research Laboratory, Nike Inc., Beaverton, OR, United States.
authors.forename: Jay T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Worobets
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Darren J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Stefanyshyn
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000843:Ankle Joint / Q000502:physiology; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena / Q000502:physiology; D035843:Biomedical Research; D005260:Female; D061826:Foot Orthoses; D006801:Humans; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D012420:Running / Q000502:physiology; D012775:Shoes; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Biomechanical relevance; Clinical trial; Lateral wedge; Osteoarthritis; Patellofemoral pain