Type of shoe doesn’t seem to matter for moderate to severe knee osteoarthritis due to medial joint space narrowing
Question
Are flat flexible shoes as effective as stable supportive shoes to decrease pain in patients with knee osteoarthritis?
Conclusion
Tell patients with knee pain to experiment to see if changing their shoe type produces pain relief. In this study, supportive shoes produce a little more pain relief in patients with moderate to severe osteoarthritis than minimalist flat and flexible shoes, but the difference is not likely clinically relevant. Function, knee-related quality of life, and hip pain are not significantly better, on average, with one type of shoe over another, though patients in each group responded to their new shoes.