• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.231-241
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to analyze the distribution of foot pressure generated by active materials of a functional insole. Comfort is an important consideration while selectingfootwear and insoles. Consequently, it has an influence on injury. The development of new materials for functional insoles is considered one of the more important points for their manufacture. The method adopted in this study is as follows. First, ten healthy males were selected as subjects for the study. Each subject's foof was pre-screened podoscope(Alfoots, Korea) to check for the presence of any foot abnormalities, Two kinds of equipment were used for the study: a foot pressure device from Pedar-X, Germany, and a treadmill from Pulsefitness, UK. Next, each subject was asked to test four types of insoles(insoles of outdoor shoes, indoor shoes, walking shoes, and sports shoes) via walking trials on the treadmill at a constant speed of 4.2 km/h. The pressure distribution data(contact area, maximum force, maximum peak pressure, and maximum mean pressure) was collected using the pressure device at a sampling rate of 100 Hz. Results of the tests showed that all four types of functional insoles increased contact areas whit the foot. Further, functional insoles of walking shoes and sport shoes decreased the foot pressure. From these results, we conclude that the active materials of functional insoles of shoes can increase the contact area and provide greater comfort.

• PNF and Movement
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.431-441
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• 2022

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the changes in the contact area, maximum pressure, maximum mean pressure, and maximum force of functional insoles and general insoles when walking. Methods: Foot pressure was measured by the ignition of functional insoles and general insoles on Company N shoes. The foot pressure was measured using a precision pressure distribution meter (Pedar - X mobile system, Novel, Germany). Each insole sensor contained 99 independent cells and was inserted between the foot and the shoe. A wireless Bluetooth-type program was used to measure the pressure detected by the measuring insoles. In order to eliminate adaptation and fatigue caused by wearing the guide during the experiment, sufficient rest was taken between each experiment, and the wearing order was randomly selected. Results: Functional insole significantly increased the forefoot and midfoot (medial, lateral) (p<0.05), while total foot, forefoot, and rearfoot peak pressure significantly decreased (p < 0.05) compared to the general insole. Conclusion: In the functional insole, a high contact area was measured inside, even in the middle of the foot, leading to a proper change in foot pressure. It was confirmed that the contact area was reduced and dispersion occurred well. In addition, it was found that the maximum pressure in the front and back of the entire foot was reduced, so the weight pressure dispersion in the functional insole was evenly distributed, and the maximum average pressure change was similar.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.224-228
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• 2018

Purpose: The most common cause of plantar ulceration is an excessive plantar pressure in patients with peripheral neuropathy. Foot orthosis and therapeutic footwear have been used to decrease the plantar pressure and prevent the plantar ulceration in in diabetes patients. We investigated whether protective sock with functional insoles reduce plantar pressure while walking in 17 diabetes patients. Methods: An in-shoe measurement device was used to measure the peak plantar pressure while walking. Peak plantar pressure data were collected while walking under two conditions: 1) wearing diabetic sock and 2) wearing the protective sock with functional insoles. Each subject walked 3 times in 10-m corridor under three conditions, and data were collected in 3 steps in the middle of corridor with in right and left feet, respectively. Pared t-test was used to compare the peak plantar pressures in three plantar areas under these two conditions. Results: The protective sock with functional insoles significantly reduced the peak plantar pressure on the lateral rearfoot, but significantly increased the peak plantar pressure on the middle forefoot, and medial midfoot (p<0.05). However, there were not significant in medial and lateral forefoot, lateral midfoot, and medial rearfoot between diabetic sock and the protective sock conditions (p>0.05). Conclusion: The protective sock with functional insoles reduced plantar pressures in the rearfoot and supported the medial longitudinal arch. However, it is necessary to change the position of metatarsal pad in the insole design of forefoot area to prevent diabetic foot ulceration.

• Journal of International Academy of Physical Therapy Research
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.840-845
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• 2015

Improvement in functional gait is one of treatment goals in treatment of cerebral palsy children. This study intended to examine the effects of insoles for postural correction on gait in spastic cerebral palsy patients by investigating changes in gait temporal spatial parameters. As the subjects, 15 spastic bilateral cerebral palsy patients participated in this study. Temporal spatial parameters of gait were measured using GAITRite system under three gait conditions. Bare foot gait, gait in shoes, and gait in insoles for postural correction were conducted. In order to look at differences in temporal spatial parameters according to three gait conditions, repeated one way analysis of variance was conducted. As post hoc test, Bonferroni was conducted. A significant level was set at ${\alpha}=.05$. According to the result of this study, gait velocity, cadence, step length, stride length of the left lower extremity significantly changed. When the subjects put on customized insoles for postural correction, the effect was greatest. There were no significant changes in stance time, single support time, double support time, swing % of gait, and stance % of cycle. Therefore, gait with insoles for postural correction positively influenced functional gait improvement and will be able to be usefully employed for spastic cerebral palsy children as one of gait assistance devices.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.345-353
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to compare and biomechanical evaluate the effects of three varying functional insoles on the kinematics of the lower extremities and foot pressure distribution during gait. For this 12 subjects participated in this study and each worn the 3 functional insoles during gait which kinematics, kinetics, electromyography and foot pressures were recorded. The function on the first insole was to absorb shock and increase the dynamic stability, the second was a gel type to absorb shock, and the third was to massage the center regions of the foot sole. the results were as follows; the first insole reduced the joints range of motion and reduced muscular fatigue, the second insole reduce the maximum, total and average foot pressures. Finally, the third insole produced larger values for the contact times and contact area.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.184-192
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• 2015

Korea has already entered into an aging society. In recent decades, the health problems for seniors has received considerable interest. We often see the elderly who have been struggled from discomfort or illness of the foot. Those foot related problems mainly cause from the use of improper shoes. Recently, shoe makers sell the shoes for seniors, so called comfort shoes, but the shoes are too expensive for seniors to buy easily. In this paper, we develop cheap insoles for seniors as an alternative of the comfort shoes and suggest the systematic process for the insoles development. This systematic process is as follows: 1) Survey the literature about the market of insole, 2) Investigate the standard size of body and foot for the seniors in Korea, 3) Analyze the customer needs by survey, 4) Study the walking pattern by experiments, and 5) Develop the novel insole for the seniors to relieve the inconveniences related with foot. From the newly developed insoles, the company B gains the sales increasing effect approximately 30% over through the increase in consumer satisfaction and company reputation and secures for intellectual property rights. Using the database from Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, the reliability of developing technology of the functional insole has been obtained. The seniors are also enable to choose an alternative of comfort shoes for foot health. In the future, the insoles developed from this study have wide applications in the medical, cosmetic fields, and leisure sports fields. Accordingly, it seems to require more systematic studies utilizing Walk Analyzer and Foot Pressure Meter.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.23-30
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• 2005

The mailman's shoes should be designed in due consideration of occupational features they spend most of times to walk. For that reason, the shoes required functions to reduce the foot fatigue and to protect body by dispersing the body weight to the whole foot. In this research, for the functional improvement of the insole, insoles are investigated and analyzed by biomechanics experimentation. Under the base of these experimental results, we develop insoles that can reduce the body load and muscular-skeletal disorder. The pressures are concentrated on the metatarsus and heel by the result of analyzing pressure distributions of the using shoes. Accordingly, we offer the prototype functional insole that is ranked from high pressure to low pressure on the base of a shock absorb function. This prototype functional insole is examined for statistical significance by pressure distribution areas. The experimental results show that pressure areas are dispersed to whole foot, for this reason, pressures of the metatarsus and heel are reduced. Results of this research can not only improve the function of insoles which is suitable for occupational features, but also be a base on constructing data bases for biomechanics gait insoles.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.280-286
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• 2019

This study verified the difference in biomechanical variation and the pattern of the lower limb between using or not using functional insoles on the gait of elderly people. Ten females subjects were selected (age: 73.2 years, height: 152.1 cm, body mass: 59.4 kg) for testing their gait with using functional insoles and without using functional insoles. The gait motions were captured with the Qualisys system and the gait parameters were calculated with Visual-3D. As a result, the subjects' stride length and swing time were significantly increased (p<.05). Also, the lower limb's extension moment was significantly increased (p<.05) when using the insole. These differences suggest the functional insole used in the experiment increases the subjects' gait stability. However, to generalize the results of this study, it is necessary to accumulate more quantitative data with more subjects. Further studies to examine gait variables and changes of walking patterns need to be conducted by gathering and utilizing the results of those subjects who have used insoles for a long period of time.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.71-79
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• 2008

Walking shoes for walking and jogging have been used to enjoy lots of leisure time. Functional shoes such as walking shoes have special functions to improve body motility by changing of shoe shapes. The walking shoes could improve the motility by structural transformation of outsole as increase degrees of heel and toe. The study on insoles has not been conducted enough on the contrary of the study of outsole. The purpose of this study is to perform ergonomics analysis whether the Arch Supported insoles have an improving effect of muscle activities or not. Experiments were performed with 6 subjects who are health and haven't experienced any diseases past. EMG(Electromyography) and Foot Pressures were measured repeatedly for 5 seconds at 0 hour, after 1 hour and after 2 hours of walking. Insoles used for experiment are normal insole, insole inserted Arch Support and pad. The electrodes for EMG measurement were set on waist (erector spinae), and thigh (vastus lateralis), calf (gastrocnemius). Evaluations of EMG were analyzed by shift of MF (Median Frequency) and MPF (Mean Power Frequency). Foot Pressure was analyzed by mean pressure of feet and change of walking time. As results, Arch Support insole had larger frequency shift value than that of normal insole. Frequency shift between Arch Support insoles and normal insole showed significant difference on 95% confidence interval. And insole 1 has the highest value of frequency shift. For results of foot pressure, Arch Support insoles show continuous decreasing tendency when comparing with normal insoles by changing of times. Also, insole 1 has the highest decreasing value of foot pressure. Therefore, this study presented that the Arch Support insole can promote muscle activities and improves comfort for a prolonged walking.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.115-126
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• 2016

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate plantar foot pressure and static balance according to the type of insole in the elderly. Methods: Thirteen elderly (mean age: $67.08{\pm}2.25years$, mean height: $159.63{\pm}9.64cm$, mean body weight: $61.48{\pm}9.06kg$) who had no previous injury experience in the lower limbs and a normal gait pattern participated in this study. Three models of insoles of the normal, 3D, and triangle types were selected for the test. The Pedar-X system and Pedar-X insoles, 3.3 km/h of walking speed, and a compilation of 20 steps walking stages were used to analyze foot-pressure distribution. Static balance test was conducted using Gaitview AFA-50, and balance (opening eyes, closing eyes) was inspected for 20 s. One-way ANOVA was conducted to test the significance of the results with the three insoles. p-value of less than .05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The mean foot pressure under the forefoot regions was the lowest with the 3D insole during treadmill walking (p<.05). The mean value under the midfoot was the highest with the 3D insole (left: p<.05, right: p<.01). The mean value under the rearfoot was the lowest with the 3D insole (p<.001). The maximum foot pressure value under the foot regions was the lowest on both sides of the forefoot with the 3D insole. A statistically significant difference was seen only in the left foot (p<.01). The maximum value under the midfoot was the highest with the 3D insole (p<.001). No statistically significant difference was detected on the values under the rearfoot. In the case of vertical ground reaction force (GRF), statistically significant difference was seen only in the left side rearfoot (p<.01). However, static balance values (ENV, REC, RMS, Total Length, Sway velocity, and Length/ENV) did not show significant differences by the type of insole. Conclusion: These results show that functional insoles can decrease plantar pressure and GRF under the forefoot and rearfoot. Moreover, functional insoles can dislodge the overload of the rearfoot and forefoot to the midfoot. However, functional insoles do not affect the static balance in the elderly.