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The purpose of the article is to evaluate the literature on the use of foot orthotics for low back pain and to make specific recommendations for future research.
Foot orthotics
are chiefly designed shoe inserts which help in supporting the feet and
improving the foot posture. The concept of evidence practice gaps explains the
difference between what is known from the best available research and what
actually happens in day to day practice. Thus, the literature studies were used
to understand foot orthotics based on knowledge.
The purpose of
the article is to evaluate the literature on the use of foot orthotics for low
back pain and to make specific recommendations for future research.
Database searches
were conducted using PubMed, EBSCO, GALE, Google Scholar, and clinicaltrials.gov.
The biomedical literature was reviewed to determine the current state of
knowledge on the benefits of foot orthotics for low back pain related to
biomechanical mechanisms and clinical outcomes.
It may be argued
that foot orthotics are experimental, investigational, or unproven for low back
pain due to lack of sufficient evidence for their clinical effectiveness. This
conclusion is based upon lack of high quality randomized controlled trials
(RCTs). However, there is extensive research on biomechanical mechanisms
underlying the benefits of orthotics that may be used to address this gap.
Additionally, promising pilot studies are beginning to emerge in the literature
and ongoing large-scale RCTs are addressing effects of foot orthotics on chronic
low back pain.
Based upon the
critical evaluation of the current research on foot orthotics related to
biomechanical mechanisms and clinical outcomes, recommendations for future
research to address the evidence-practice gaps on the use of foot orthotics for
low back pain are presented.
The Foot 26 (2016) 53–57
Foot orthotics for low back pain: The state of our understanding and recommendations for future research
M. Owen Papuga et al.
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