Relationship between changes in the knee adduction moment and medial compartment contact force with variable stiffness shoes

Abstract

Purpose: Despite early promising results of Variable Stiffness Shoes (VSS) on pain and function in medial compartment knee osteoarthritis (OA) patients, randomized controlled trials have not found a significant effect on structural disease progression. Significant biomechanical effects of VSS have been found with several studies showing reductions in the external knee adduction moment (KAM) for healthy, mild, moderate and severe medial compartment knee OA participants as compared to shoes with homogenous midsole stiffness.