Personalized gait tweaks ease knee osteoarthritis pain, study finds
A yearlong randomized trial found that individualized gait retraining—adjusting foot angle by a personalized amount to reduce knee loading—significantly reduced knee pain and slowed cartilage deterioration in medial knee osteoarthritis, with results comparable to pain medications. The six-week training used vibration feedback to help participants maintain their new walking pattern, and after a year participants stayed close to their prescribed angles. While promising, the approach requires specialized gait assessment and is not yet ready for wide clinical use; future delivery could involve wearable sensors or clinic-based PT.