Running shoes tailored to arch height may not be better at preventing injuries

How much did you spend on your last pair of running shoes? Did you get the kind that offered extra stability or cushioning matched to your arch height? A new study suggests you probably could have gone generic.

Male and female Marine trainees volunteered for the study in which a 689-person control group received a shoe designed for general stability, while 722 people were given shoes with special features matched to their arch height. Arch height was noted when the participants stood on a special device that showed how much of the bottom of the foot came in contact with the surface.

Those with low arches received a motion-control shoe, those with normal arches got a stability shoe, and those with high arches got a cushioned shoe. They wore the shoes for about 12 to 15 hours of physical training per week during a 12-week period.

Injuries were noted from outpatient-visit records. Injuries, including ones related to training and overuse, did not differ between the two groups -- in fact, the numbers were almost identical and were not very different after the researchers considered other injury risk factors.

In the paper, the authors wrote: “If the goal is injury prevention, it is not necessary to provide running shoes to Marine Corps recruits based on a visual inspection of the static weightbearing plantar shape. This assignment procedure was no more protective against injury than issuing a single stability shoe regardless of plantar shape.” More important, they added, was making sure the recruits received new shoes, because wearing older shoes may lead to increased injuries.

The study appears in the September issue of the American Journal of Sports Medicine.

-- Jeannine Stein / Los Angeles Times