OHI--Randomized Control Trial to Evaluate Efficacy, Acceptability, and Perception of Benefit of an Innovative Custom AFO

Hip sway (motion of hip joints in three dimensions) measured by wearable sensors while wearing their own shoes compared to the orthopedic shoes and compared to orthopedic shoes plus Ankle-Foot Orthosis (AFO)

Ankle sway (motion of ankle joint in three dimensions) measured by wearable inertial sensors while wearing their own shoes compared to the orthopedic shoes and compared to orthopedic shoes plus Ankle-Foot Orthosis (AFO)

Center of Mass (COM) sway measured by wearable inertial sensors while wearing their own shoes compared to the orthopedic shoes and compared to orthopedic shoes plus Ankle-Foot Orthosis (AFO)

The adherence of participants to the prescribed Ankle-Foot Orthosis (AFO) plus walking shoes was quantified using the response to a self-reported question ("How many hours per day did you wear the prescribed footwear?").

Fall incidents during the study

Concern for falling is quantified by Falls Efficacy Scale - International (FES-I) questionnaire. Scores range from minimum 16 (no concern about falling) to maximum 64 (severe concern about falling). Higher score indicate worse performance.

Physical activity level for 24 hours while wearing their own shoes compared to the walking shoes and compared to walking shoes plus Ankle-Foot Orthosis (AFO). To quantify physical activity, number of taken steps per day was monitored using a pendant wearable sensor called, PAMSys (Biosensics, MA, USA).

Number of participants with adverse events reported during the study. Adverse events was inquired at 1 months, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months after the baseline, and summed at 12 months. If the participant has at least one adverse event reported in any assessed time frame, the participant will be categorized as the participant with adverse event.

The participants perceived usefulness of ease of use of wearing Moore Balance Brace (MBB) Ankle-Foot Orthosis (AFO) based on questionnaires of A technology acceptance model (TAM). Perceived usefulness was assessed using two questions (i.e., "I feel more stable when standing," and "I feel more stable when walking"). Perceived ease of use was assessed using two questions (i.e., "Was easy to take on and off," and "Was comfortable to wear"). The Likert scale (6-point scale from 0-5) was used to quantify how much they disagreed with each statement, including "strongly disagree," "disagree," "somewhat disagree," "somewhat agree," "agree," and "strongly agree," respectively. In this paper, responses were only categorized as positive (3-5 points) or negative (0-2 points) attitudes towards the use of AFO plus walking shoes.

stride velocity measured in single-task walking with normal speed

stride time measured in single task walking with normal speed

stride length measured in single-task walking with normal speed