Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Apr 4:11:5.
doi: 10.1186/s13102-019-0117-9. eCollection 2019.

The effects of textured insoles on quiet standing balance in four stance types with and without vision

Ryan P W Kenny  1 , Daniel L Eaves  1 , Denis Martin  1 , Anna L Hatton  2 , John Dixon  1
Affiliations

The effects of textured insoles on quiet standing balance in four stance types with and without vision

Ryan P W Kenny et al. BMC Sports Sci Med Rehabil. .

Abstract

Background: Wearing a textured shoe insole can decrease postural sway during static balance. Previous studies assessed bipedal and/or unipedal standing. In contrast, we aimed to investigate if textured insoles modulated postural sway during four stance types (bipedal, standard Romberg, tandem Romberg, and unipedal), with and without vision.

Methods: The repeated measures design involved 28 healthy young adults (13 females; mean age = 26.86 ± 6.6 yrs) performing quiet standing in the four stance types on a force platform, under two different insole conditions (textured insole; TI vs. smooth insole; SI), with eyes open and eyes closed. Postural sway was assessed via the range and standard deviation of the COP excursions in the anterior-posterior and medial-lateral sway, and overall mean velocity.

Results: The main effect of insole type was statistically significant at the alpha p = 0.05 level (p = 0.045). Compared to smooth insoles, textured insoles reduced the standard deviation of anterior-posterior excursions (APSD). While simple main effect analyses revealed this was most pronounced during eyes closed bipedal standing, insole type did not provide a statistically significant interaction with either stance or vision in this measure, or any other. Postural sway showed statistically significant increases across both stance type (bipedal < standard Romberg < tandem Romberg < unipedal), and vision (eyes closed < eyes open), in almost all measures. Stance and vision did have a statistically significant interaction in each measure, reflecting greater postural disturbances with eyes closed when stance stability decreased.

Conclusions: Overall, these results support textured insole use in healthy young adults to reduce postural sway measures. This is because APSD is an index of spatial variability, where a decrease is associated with improved balance and possibly translates to reduced falls risk. Placing a novel texture in the shoe presumably modulated somatosensory inputs. It is important to understand the underlying mechanisms by which textured insoles influence postural sway. As such, utilising a healthy adult group allows us to investigate possible mechanisms of textured insoles. Future research could investigate the potential underlying mechanisms of textured insole effects at a neuromuscular and cortical level, in healthy young adults.

Keywords: Footwear intervention; Mechanoreceptors; Sensory reweighting; Somatosensory input; Static balance.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethical approval was granted by the School of Health and Social Care Research Governance and Ethics Committee at Teesside University. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to testing.Not applicable.One of the authors, Professor John Dixon, is an Editorial Board Member of BMC Sports Science, Medicine, and Rehabilitation.Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Mean postural sway in the five COP measures for the factor of stance. a. Mean postural sway for anterior-posterior standard deviation (APSD) (b). Mean postural sway for anterior-posterior range (AP range) (c). Mean postural sway for medial-lateral standard deviation (MLSD) data. d. Mean postural sway for medial-lateral range (ML range) data. e. Mean postural sway for the mean velocity data. ** denotes a significant difference of p < .001. * denotes a significant difference of p < .05. Error bars show standard deviation of the mean
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Orth D, Davids K, Wheat J, Seifert L, Liukkonen J, Jaakkola T, et al. The role of textured material in supporting perceptual-motor functions. PLoS One. 2013. 10.1371/journal.pone.0060349. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hatton AL, Rome K, Dixon J, Martin DJ, McKeon PO. Footwear interventions: a review of their sensorimotor and mechanical effects on balance performance and gait in older adults. J Am Podiatr Med Assoc. 2013;103:516–533. doi: 10.7547/1030516. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Hatton AL, Dixon J, Rome K, Martin D. Standing on textured surfaces: effects on standing balance in healthy older adults. Age Ageing. 2011;40:363–368. doi: 10.1093/ageing/afr026. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Qiu F, Cole MH, Davids KW, Hennig EM, Silburn PA, Netscher H, et al. Enhanced somatosensory information decreases postural sway in older people. Gait Posture. 2012;35:630–635. doi: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2011.12.013. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Qiu F, Cole MH, Davids KW, Hennig EM, Silburn PA, Netscher H, et al. Effects of textured insoles on balance in people with Parkinson's disease. PLoS One. 2013. 10.1371/journal.pone.0083309. - PMC - PubMed