An individually moulded insole with 5-mm medial arch support reduces peak impact and loading at the heel after a one-hour treadmill run

Abstract

BackgroundFoot pain experienced by long-distance runners could be relieved by functional insoles which aim at evenly distributing the plantar pressure. Research questionWe hypothesised that an individually moulded insole with medial arch support would reduce the impact and loading under the heel and metatarsal regions. MethodsTwelve male recreational runners ran on a treadmill at 10 km/h for 1 hour with flat insoles and medial arch supported insoles. A pressure insole system (Novel Pedar, Germany) was used to obtain the peak pressure, peak force, time normalised pressure-time integrals, and the percentage of the total force-time integrals under 10 regions. ResultsMedial arch supported insoles reduced the peak force under the heel (medial: -15.3%, p = 0.001; lateral: -19.2%, p = 0.037) during the initial run, and reduced peak pressure under the heel (medial: -13.3%, p = 0.005; lateral: -9.9%, p = 0.006), and peak force under the medial heel (-17.8%, p = 0.006) after the run. The percentage of the total force-time integrals under the heel was reduced (medial: -23.8%, p = 0.004; lateral: -13.6%, p = 0.022) after the run. No significant difference was found under the metatarsal regions. There is shift of load from the metatarsal regions to the medial mid-foot as indicated by the change of the percentage of total force-time integrals. SignificanceMedial arch supported insoles were effective in reducing the impact and loading under the heel region in prolonged running on a treadmill. Level of evidenceControlled laboratory study, Level V