Stable, Supportive Shoes No Aid for Hip Osteoarthritis

FRIDAY, Feb. 27, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Stable, supportive shoes are not superior to flat, flexible shoes for improving hip osteoarthritis pain while walking, according to a study published online Feb. 24 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Kade L. Paterson, Ph.D., from University of Melbourne in Australia, and colleagues evaluated whether stable, supportive shoes are more effective than flat, flexible shoes for hip pain. The analysis included 116 people with hip osteoarthritis pain randomly assigned to off-the-shelf, stable, supportive shoes or flat, flexible shoes and followed for six months.

The researchers found that stable, supportive shoes did not differ from flat, flexible shoes in improving hip pain (mean difference [MD], −0.5 point; 95 percent confidence interval [CI], −1.3 to 0.2 points; P = 0.163). While few secondary outcomes differed by shoe type, flat, flexible shoes were associated with greater improvement in the Hip Disability and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score symptom subscale (MD, 6.6 points; 95 percent CI, 1.4 to 11.7 points) and quality-of-life subscale (MD, 7.8 points; 95 percent CI, 1.1 to 14.4 points). Stable, supportive shoes showed a trend toward greater improvement in contralateral foot or ankle pain (MD, 0.8 point; 95 percent CI, 0.0 to 1.5 points). The stable, supportive shoe group experienced fewer adverse events than the flat, flexible shoe group (12 versus 31 percent; relative risk, 0.39; 95 percent CI, 0.18 to 0.86).

“Our results support clinical guidelines that make no clear recommendation about which type of footwear might benefit people with chronic pain due to hip osteoarthritis,” the authors write. “In addition, our study suggests that footwear that is beneficial for knee osteoarthritis pain might not reduce hip osteoarthritis pain.”

Two authors disclosed receiving a grant or contract from the National Health and Medical Research Council.

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