Short-term use of foot orthoses may help to manage to reduce pain and improve disability among the elderly women who are diagnosed by osteoporosis, medical experts claim, quoting findings from a random clinical study. Also wearing the orthoses for up to four weeks has been shown to improve balance among the fracture-prone population. This indicates that wearing insoles may be used as an adjuvant therapy to prevent falls among the elderly.
The study involved 94 women over the age of 60 who were randomly assigned to wear an orthoses for four weeks. In one group each orthoses was custom made for each woman with medial arch support and metatarsal pads. While a control group who were not assigned to wear one also . After a four week follow-up, the group wearing orthoses were found to exhibit improvements from their baseline measurements in terms of balance and pain experienced.
In contrast, the control group did not show any changes from their baseline measurements while their pain scores actually increased after four weeks during the study.
The researchers noted there was a dose-response effect among the patients in the women wearing the orthoses. Participants who wore their insoles for eight hours a day experienced a greater improvement in balance over the study period than those who only wore them for four hours or less per day.
The patients also tolerated the orthoses very well with only one patient who discontinued treatment due to complaints of pain. Further six patients reported minor adverse effects such as discomfort, foot heat, and tightness of footwear, but there were no falls reported from either group during the study period.
The study was published in the journal Rheumatology. Although its authors admit that the findings did not take other factors into account, such as age, educational background, body mass index, medication use, previous fractures, etc, into account, the proponents believe that the results indicate a strong connection between the use of orthoses footwear with improved management against falls and injury for fracture prone patients diagnosed with osteoporosis.
This treatment therapy may require more testing but the initial results are encouraging. This may also indicate that wearing insoles for patients with osteoporosis may be a good combination therapy or alternative from more conventional medical treatments which may cause complications from side-effects.
Osteoporosis is a chronic disease that has a long history. It also tends to affect people in their older years and may lead to fractures and even early death. This condition affects millions around the world and is projected to afflict more within the coming years. Finding more effective and cost-efficient treatments has been given constant priority. More articles may be found on the Fosamax multi-district litigation website on fosamaxclassaction.us
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