Insoles in Prevention of Lower Limb Injuries

Finnish Defense Forces

Status: Completed

Conditions: Lower Limb Overuse Injuries

Treatments: Device: custom-made insoles (Thermo+Camel, cost for the military 20,50 euros)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT00922246

55555

Details and patient eligibility

About

To address whether custom made foot insoles could be used for primary prevention of lower limb overuse injuries, the investigators conducted a prospective, randomized controlled study comparing the use of insoles and standard shoes in healthy young adults exposed to increased physical activity.

Sex: Male

Ages: 18 to 29 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• healthy conscripts without any diagnosed deformities of lower limb by physician in premilitary physical examination

Exclusion criteria

• major orthopaedic or medical conditions (e.g., diabetes, inflammatory arthritis, previous severe trauma (exclusion criteria for the military service)
• patients were excluded from our study if they already had insoles prescribed by a physician or a physiotherapist (eight patients)
• since only 2% of Finnish conscripts are females, they were excluded from the study

Trial design

0 participants in 2 patient groups

control group

No Intervention group

Description:

Conscript used their own ankle boots instead of custom made insoles.

shoe insoles

Experimental group

Description:

The custom made insoles (Thermo+Camel, cost for the military 20,50 euros) were fabricated from firm-density polyethylene and the hard plastic shell was a three-quarter length. The insole was strong enough to fill the arch area thus providing support to the mid foot. It also influences the position of the foot. The insoles were individually customized by heating the polyethylene in form of individual foot with standing and walking in them. The conscripts were advised to use these insoles in their ankle boot.

Treatment:

Device: custom-made insoles (Thermo+Camel, cost for the military 20,50 euros)