Small changes to walking style may reduce knee arthritis pain
A study looked at the walking patterns of people suffering from knee arthritis and found that by subtly adjusting the angle of their feet while walking, pain was reduced to the same extent as with over-the-counter painkillers.
Personalized gait retraining for medial compartment knee osteoarthritis: a randomized controlled trial - The Lancet Rheumatology
How small changes in walking technique may help treat knee osteoarthritis
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-08-small-technique-knee-osteoarthritis.html
A new study led by researchers from New York University Langone Medical Center, the University of Utah, and Stanford University tested the hypothesis that altering the direction of your feet while walking can reduce excessive stress on your joints during movement.
The research team first had 68 men and women with mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis walk on a treadmill, simulating their walking patterns and calculating the maximum load on the inside of the knee.
Next, the research team devised four different walking patterns in which the subjects' feet were tilted inward or outward by 5 or 10 degrees, and estimated which pattern would reduce the load the most.
The patients were then randomly assigned to either a group that underwent low-impact walking training or a group that continued walking as usual.
One year after the training, the participants' pain scores and MRI scans were performed. It was found that those who adjusted their walking pattern experienced a 4% reduction in maximum knee load, while those who maintained their normal walking pattern experienced an increase of more than 3%.
In terms of pain scores, those who adjusted their walking patterns experienced a 2.5-point reduction in pain on a 10-point scale, comparable to over-the-counter painkillers. Those who didn't change their walking patterns also experienced a reduction in pain, but only by just over 1 point.
'These findings suggest that the group that received the training showed a slower rate of cartilage degeneration in the medial part of the knee,' said Valentina Mazzoli, co-first author of the study. 'While further studies are needed to confirm these results, this suggests that this technique may be able to postpone the need for surgery.'
According to Mazzoli, while previous studies have looked at adjusting gait, most of them didn't involve all subjects walking in the same way and comparing with a control group, or the follow-up period was short, only one month, and there were no studies that taught individuals how to walk in a way that was tailored to their individual needs. Furthermore, while gait patterns were examined in this study at a specialized facility, AI apps that can estimate load on smartphones already exist, making this approach easy to implement.
'Helping patients find the optimal angle to reduce stress on the knee could be a simple, low-cost way to address osteoarthritis,' said Mazzoli. 'These results highlight the importance of individualized treatment rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.'
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