Table 2.
Differences in balance and gait patterns between the supportive footwear and minimalist footwear. Values are in centimetres
| Supportive footwear | Minimalist footwear | Cohen’s d | Interpretation | P-value | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mean (SD) | median (IQR) | mean (SD) | median (IQR) | ||||
| Balance | |||||||
| Postural sway, eyes open on the floor | 172 (335) | 81 (77) | 135 (152) | 78 (88) | 0.14 | small | 0.320* |
| Postural sway, eyes closed on the floor | 88 (46) | 74 (76) | 68 (56) | 47 (52) | 0.36 | medium | 0.057* |
| Postural sway, eyes open on the foam | 663 (619) | 460 (566) | 533 (385) | 456 (434) | 0.26 | medium | 0.099* |
| Postural sway, eyes closed on the foam | 3,824 (8,146) | 913 (737) | 4,750 (6,062) | 1,405 (13,202) | 0.13 | small | 0.324† |
| Near tandem stance | 929 (972) | 429 (955) | 760 (878) | 514 (522) | 0.19 | small | 0.204* |
| Walking stability | |||||||
| Walking stability, treadmill | 3,891 (2,917) | 2,745 (2,175) | 16,377 (53,923) | 2,809 (2,134) | 0.34 | medium | 0.157† |
| Walking stability, level surface | 20,264 (16,077) | 13,395 (12,703) | 24,060 (28,598) | 14,301 (10,661) | 0.17 | small | 0.236† |
| Walking stability, irregular surface | 21,812 (12,398) | 17,364 (12,256) | 29,463 (32,038) | 16,526 (10,870) | 0.32 | medium | 0.141† |
SD Standard deviation, IQR Interquartile range
*Non-significant improvement with minimalist footwear
†Non-significant improvement with supportive footwear