The effect of different textured foot orthoses on ankle and knee joint muscles co-contraction in male and female older adults during walking

Arefeh Mokhtari MalekAbadi; AmirAli Jafarnezhadgero; Heidar Sajedi; Valdeci Carlos Dionisio

doi:10.1016/j.gaitpost.2024.12.025

The effect of different textured foot orthoses on ankle and knee joint muscles co-contraction in male and female older adults during walking

Gait Posture. 2024 Dec 25:117:204-211. doi: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2024.12.025. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Arefeh Mokhtari MalekAbadi¹, AmirAli Jafarnezhadgero², Heidar Sajedi³, Valdeci Carlos Dionisio⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Sport Biomechanics, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran.
² Department of Sport Biomechanics, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran. Electronic address: a.jafarnezhad@uma.ac.ir.
³ Faculty of Health Science, Department of Exercise and Sports Science for Disabled People, International Science and Technology University, Warsaw, Poland.
⁴ Faculty of Physical Education and Physiotherapy, Federal University of Uberlandia, Uberlandia, MG, Brazil.

PMID: 39756238
DOI: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2024.12.025

Abstract

Background: Foot orthoses have been considered to affect static and dynamic functional capacity and could help older adults maintain balance while walking. However, the impact of textured foot orthoses over co-contraction strategies remains uncertain. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the effect of different textured foot orthoses on ankle and knee joint muscle co-contraction in male and female older adults during walking.

Research question: How do different textured foot orthoses affect ankle and knee joint muscle co-contraction in older adults during walking?

Methods: Twenty-eight older adults (14 males and 14 females) participated in this semi-experimental and laboratory study. They walked with customized textured foot orthoses. The muscle activity during walking at five conditions (rigid small textured orthoses, rigid large textured orthoses, soft small textured orthoses, soft large textured orthoses, and without orthoses) was registered, and the directed co-contraction (DCC) and general co-contraction (GCC) were calculated. In the "without orthoses" condition, the participants used shoes only (without insoles).

Results: The results showed that rigid large textured orthoses reduced ankle DCC at the loading phase (p < 0.05). In contrast, rigid, small textured orthoses reduced ankle GCC at the loading phase (p < 0.05). The rigid small textured orthoses reduced knee flexion-extension DCC at loading and mid-stance phases, being greater in females at the push-off phase (p < 0.05), while the soft large textured orthoses reduced the knee mediolateral DCC (p < 0.05). The small textured orthoses produced lower knee GCC at the loading phase but greater in females (p < 0.05). Also, the main differences occurred at the loading and then mid-stance phases.

Significance: Our results suggest that sex could affect the knee joint GCC when indicating textured orthosis, the indication also depends on which joint is the target. Meanwhile, the rigid small textured orthoses improved the knee GCC during the loading phase. Our results demonstrated that rigid large textured orthoses improved ankle DCC during the loading phase.

Keywords: Co-contraction; Elderly; Textured Insole; Walking.