Effects of using knee varus instability-reducing shoes on patient-oriented QOL in patients with knee osteoarthritis

: This study was performed to determine whether Japan Knee Osteoarthritis Measure (JKOM) in patients with knee osteoarthritis improves after walking using knee adduction-reducing shoes we devised for 1 month. The subjects consisted of 20 patients with knee osteoarthritis (all female, aged 63.8(cid:156)7.1 years). We assessed knee pain using the visual analogue scale (VAS) and patient-oriented QOL using JKOM. To evaluate the effects of the intervention, a baseline period (A) and a subsequent intervention period (B) were established, and measurement values were compared between the two periods (AB design). Knee pain and JKOM total score and subscale of “Pain and Stiffness in knee” sig-nificantly decreased after the 1-month intervention period (B) using adduction-reducing shoes compared with values after the 1-month control period using general sneakers (A). The results of this study suggest that knee adduction-reducing shoes are useful for reduc-ing knee pain and improving patient-oriented QOL in patients with osteoarthritis.