The objective of this study was to explore the effects of commonly used footwear in urban Pakistan on knee adduction moment (KAM), knee adduction angular impulse (KAAI) and biomechanical work at lower limb joints (both individually and collectively).
Cinematographic gait analysis of 20 medial knee osteoarthritis patients (Kellgren-Lawrence Grade I and II, age: 55.48 ± 5.78 years; weight: 68.92 ± 9.61 kg, height: 1.62 ± 0.15m) was done, walking barefoot, with casual shoes, party shoes and traditional Pakistani sandals, at a walking speed of 1.2m/sec.
Repeated measures ANOVA with Tukey corrections showed that all the shoes were found to be increasing first & second peaks external KAM and decreasing net joint work and total limb work significantly, at p < 0.05.
Effects of footwear were found to be majorly favouring knee osteoarthritis progression. This might be one of the risk factors of increased kOA rate in urban Pakistan.