Knee-high medical compression socks help fix balance, posture in seniors

Wearing medical compression socks that extend above the knee appears to boost perception of somatosensory feedback from the lower limbs in older adults, as shown in a Singapore study.

“Functional proprioceptive information is required to allow an individual to interact with the environment effectively for everyday activities such as locomotion and object manipulation. Specifically, research suggests that application of compression garments could improve proprioceptive regulation of action by enhancing sensorimotor system noise in individuals of different ages and capacities,” according to the investigators.

“[The present findings suggest that] wearing clinical compression knee-length socks could potentially provide an affordable strategy to ameliorate negative effects of ageing on the proprioception system to enhance balance and postural control in community-dwelling individuals,” they added.

A total of 26 older adults (mean age, 73.7 years; 14 females; mean height, 1.59 m; mean weight, 60 kg) from local senior activity centres in Singapore participated in the study. Each underwent the following interventions: wear clinical compression socks (20–30 mm Hg), wear nonclinical compression socks (<20 mm Hg), wear normal socks, and barefoot (one control condition).   

All participants underwent a repeated-measures assessment to determine the effect of each treatment condition on joint position awareness. They were asked to use the dominant foot to indicate eight levels of steepness (2.5°, 5°, 7.5°, 10°, 12.5°, 15°, 17.5°, and 20°), while standing on a modified slope box, in a plantar flexion position.

Results revealed that compared with the barefoot condition, clinical compression socks significantly reduced the mean absolute errors in the plantar flexion awareness test, indicating improved precision of estimation of ankle joint plantar flexion movement. [PLoS One 2021;16:e0245979]

However, there were no significant differences observed between other knee-high socks and barefoot conditions.

“Consistent with [previous] findings, this study supports the idea that the use of clinical compression socks could reduce the ankle joint perceptual errors in elderly participants wearing compression garments,” the investigators said. [Gait Posture 2009;29:322-325]

“In addition, our study showed small variability in the spread of the joint position sense error data in participants wearing the clinical compression knee-length socks. This functional role of variability induced in the sensorimotor system by wearing clinical compression socks could act as a form of ‘essential noise’ in neurobiological systems which can help individuals to regulate their actions when negotiating the environment,” they explained. [Gait Posture 2012;35:630-635]

Taken together, the data highlight the potential of clinical compression socks to improve joint sensitivity and precision and, thus, augment somatosensory feedback that emerges from pressure on cutaneous and joint receptors in the lower legs, the investigators pointed out. [PLoS One 2017;12:e0174522;  pmid:28355265; Procedia Eng 2014;72:162-167; Neurosci Lett 2010;485:6-10; J Neurophysiol 2018;120:186-195]

“Future studies could also examine the long-term effects of wearing knee-length socks on various ranges of ankle joint positions (eg, dorsi flexion and inversion),” they said.