Anew Shoe Decreases Pain and Fatigue in Ascending and Descending the stairs in patients with knee osteoarthritis

Abstract

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common painful and chronic condition that affects a large proportion of the older population. Patients with knee OA often present with decreased stair climbing performance, measured as time needed to ascend and descend a given number of stairs, and stair climbing performance is frequently used as a measure of function in this patient group. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a new shoe on improving knee OA in ascending and descending the stairs in terms of pain and fatigue. Ninety-nine patients were divided into two group by gender and age adjustment. Group one consisted of forty nine patients, 44 (89.8%) female and 5 (10.2) male, mean age was 58.71 +/- 6.98 in this group. Group two was consisted of 50 patients 43 (86%) female and 7 (14%) male, mean age was 58.38 +/- 8.84 in this group. Visual analog scale (VAS) and fatigue score and duration of ascending and descending of stairs was studied in the patients with and without wearing the new shoe. VAS and fatigue score were lower in patients during wearing the designed shoe, although there was no significant difference in ascending and descending duration of stairs with or without shoe. Our experiment showed that a new designed shoe can improve OA patients in ascending or descending the stairs and improve their fatigue score, so it may be useful to improve their life quality through decreasing their pain in ascending and descending the stairs. [Mohammad Navali, Bina Eftekhar Sadat, Babak Hajipour. Reza Ranjbaran. Anew Shoe Decreases Pain and Fatigue in Ascending and Descending the stairs in patients with knee osteoarthritis. Life Sci J 2012; 9(4): 25432549] (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 377