• The Journal of Korean Academy of Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapy
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.65-73
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• 2005

Osteoarthritis has been considered a disease of the elderly because it is uncommon before the age of 40 years and is seen in approximately 80% of United States citizens older than 65 years. general population on kuri city in korea revealed that prevalence of knee osteoarthritis is 10.2%, increasing with age. High level of physical activity in men and age, post-menopause and obesity in women can be risk factor. Osteoarthritis is no evidence that a acquired process initiated much earlier in life through mechanical, metabolic, genetic, or other origins. A high tibial osteotomy alters static lower extremity alignment thereby decreasing medial compartment loading. As well, conservative treatment strategies, such as knee braces and valgus heel wedges, affect lover limb mechanics and attempt to reduce medial compartment loading. It was hypothesized that valgus heel wedges and modified orthoses would shift the center of pressure laterally on the foot during level walking, reducing the moment arm of the adduction moment in the frontal plane, thereby resulting in a decrease in the knee adduction moment. In the 1980s, the effect of wearing a laterally wedged insole on osteoarthritic patients with a varus deformity of the knee was firsted, and since then, kinematic and kinetic analyses concerning this condition have mainly focused on a static standing position. Since the early 1990s, the beneficial effect of wearing a laterally wedged insole to treat osteoarthritis of the knee has also been reported in dynamic conditions, but these studies did not answer the question of the kinematic and kinetic mechanisms that resulted in the reduced symptoms in patents with knee osteoarthritis. therefore, the effect of wearing laterally wedged insole has not been sufficiently studied.