Effects of Textured Socks on Balance Control During Single-leg Standing in Healthy Adults

Balance is important in many activities of daily living and sports movements. Texture, added to shoe insole material, has been shown to improve balance in young, older and pathological populations. The aim of this study was to develop and test textured socks, which might have several potential benefits over insole use including: they can be worn without, or transferred between, shoes, and texture can be applied to areas of the foot other than the plantar surface. Prototypes socks were made with nodules (5 mm diameter) sewn onto socks on: 1) the plantar surface, 2) the dorsal surface, 3) sides of the foot and 4) covering the entire surface. Participants (n=13) performed three single-legged stance trials, standing on a force platform. with eyes open and eyes closed, whilst wearing each of the prototype socks and a control sock. Balance was quantified using the postural time-to- boundary measure. Results revealed a trend towards improved balance in the Sides sock condition (eyes open d = 0.62, eyes closed d = 0.51) conditions. This finding supported previous data from studies showing benefits of wearing insoles with plastic tubing around the perimeter of the foot, suggesting that textured socks might be useful as an intervention to improve balance.