The effect of three different foot interventions on standing balance in healthy adults

Study Design: Experimental, randomised crossover study. Objectives: To investigate if three different interventions that provided plantar proprioceptive input were able to make acute improvements to the one-legged standing balance. Background: Improved balance reduces the risk of falling. Therefore, it would be interesting if it were possible to improve balance with a simple intervention. Methods: Eighteen healthy able-bodied subjects (4 males) were included in the study. Self-massage, Kinesio ^® tape and a custom-made insole were tested in a crossover design. The order of the interventions was randomised for each participant. The participants were asked to keep the balance on an instrumented wobbleboard. Differences between the three interventions was tested with an ANOVA with Tukey-corrected post-hoc tests. Results: The custom-made insoles improved the standing balance by nine percent compared to baseline. This difference was statically significant (p <.05). The balance was not significantly better with the insole compared to self-massage or Kinesio ^® tape. Conclusion: We found that an individually moulded insole improved one legged standing balance. Neither Kinesio ^® tape or self-massage with a massage ball on the plantar sole proved to improve balance.