Foot orthotic devices decrease transverse plane motion during landing from a forward vertical jump in healthy females.

The use of foot orthoses has been evaluated during a variety of functional activities. Twelve college-aged active females wore two types of foot orthoses and performed a vertical jump to determine the biomechanical effect of the orthoses on lower extremity transverse plane movement during landing. Data collection included three-dimensional analysis of the tibia, knee, and hip. A repeated-measures ANOVA was performed to determine the differences between no orthoses, over-the-counter, and custom-made orthoses with transverse plane motion. At the hip joint, there was significantly less internal rotation (p < .05) in the over-the-counter condition as compared with the no orthoses condition. There was significantly less tibial internal rotation (p < .05) in the custom-made condition as compared with no orthoses. Over-the-counter devices decreased transverse plane motion at the hip, whereas custom-made devices decreased transverse plane motion of the tibia.