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Relative contribution of footwear to the efficacy of ankle-foot orthoses

Department of Psychology, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK

Peter W Halligan

School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

Derick T Wade

The Oxford Centre for Enablement, Oxford, UK

Objective: To examine the relative effects of footwear and an ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) on hemiplegic gait.

Design: A case series with three contrasting conditions: walking without footwear, with footwear alone, and with footwear and an AFO. Spatio-temporal parameters reflecting walking performance were analysed using an analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Patients: Five patients with hemiplegia and reduced mobility following stroke.

Setting: A specialist rehabilitation centre.

Intervention: Wearing either footwear alone, or footwear with an AFO.

Measures: Video recordings of gait were subjected to a kinematic analysis to determine spatio-temporal parameters.

Results: Stride length was increased by an average of 5 cm when wearing footwear. An additional 5-cm increase was also observed when wearing an AFO. Swing velocity was also affected by the manipulation.

Conclusions: The appropriate comparative baseline for assessing the efficacy of an AFO is subjects walking with existing footwear and not barefoot.

Clinical Rehabilitation, Vol. 17, No. 5, 553-557 (2003)
DOI: 10.1191/0269215503cr649oa


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