Patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) who wear stable supportive shoes for 6 months seem to have greater average reductions in knee pain when walking, in comparison with patients who wear flat flexible shoes, suggested a randomized trial of over 160 patients.

The primary outcomes included changes in walking pain on a 0-10 scale and physical function evaluated by the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index subscale at 6 months. In the flat flexible shoe group, overall average knee pain while walking was found to decline from 6.3 at baseline to 5.2 at 6 months whilein the stable supportive shoe group, knee pain while walking decreased from 6.1 to 4. The between-group difference in change in pain was in favor of stable supportive shoes, with a mean difference of 1.1 units. Improvements in knee-related quality of life and ipsilateral hip pain also favored stable supportive shoes. The findings are published in Annals of Internal Medicine… (Medscape)