Acute effect of motion control in comparison with standard shoes on coordination of lower limb joints in females with patellofemoral pain syndrome during the stance phase of running

Emerging research has suggested a relationship may exist between joint coordination and musculoskeletal injuries such as patellofemoral pain syndrome. It has recently suggested the use of shoes as a therapeutic intervention; however, the extent to which shoes affect the pattern of coordination remains unclear.The purpose of this study was to evaluate acute effect of motion control shoe on lower-limb joints coordination in females with patellofemoral pain syndrome during stance phase of running

24 females with PFPS participated in the study. Kinematic data were recorded in two running conditions with motion control and standard shoes using cameras. The vector coding method was used to calculate the coordination of the lower limb joints; also the paired t-test method was used to analyze the data at the significance level of P≤0.05.

Motion control shoes compared to standard shoes had different effect on the coordination between rotation of the knee joint with motion of the subtalar joint in the transverse plane in two sub-phases of loading response (P=0.006) and midstance (P=0.007). Also in the sagittal plane in the loading response phase, the coordination between the hip with the knee joint and the hip with the ankle joints was statistically significant between the two shoes.

The use of motion control shoe proved to be effective to alter lower limb coordination during running in female with PFPS. This new insight into coordinative function may be useful for improving corrective strategies planned for treatment of PFPS.