The effect of biomechanical foot-based interventions on patellofemoral joint loads during gait in adults with and without patellofemoral pain or osteoarthritis: a systematic review protocol

BACKGROUND: Patellofemoral pain is highly prevalent across the lifespan, and a significant proportion of people report unfavourable outcomes years after diagnosis. Previous research has implicated patellofemoral joint loading during gait in patellofemoral pain and its sequelae, patellofemoral osteoarthritis. Biomechanical foot-based interventions (e.g., footwear, insoles, orthotics, taping or bracing) can alter patellofemoral joint loads by reducing motions at the foot that increase compression between the patella and underlying femur via coupling mechanisms, making them a promising treatment option. This systematic review will summarise the evidence about the effect of biomechanical foot-based interventions on patellofemoral joint loads during gait in adults with and without patellofemoral pain and osteoarthritis. METHODS: MEDLINE (Ovid), the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature CINAHL, The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), SPORTdiscus (EBSCO) and Embase (Ovid) will be searched. Our search strategy will include terms related to ‘patellofemoral joint’, ‘loads’ and ‘biomechanical foot-based interventions’. We will include studies published in the English language that assess the effect of biomechanical foot-based interventions on patellofemoral joint loads, quantified by patellofemoral joint pressure, patellofemoral joint reaction force and/or knee flexion moment. Two reviewers will independently screen titles and abstracts, complete full-text reviews, and extract data from included studies. Two reviewers will assess study quality using the Revised Cochrane Risk of Bias (RoB 2) tool or the Cochrane Risk Of Bias In Non-Randomized Studies – of Interventions (ROBINS-I) tool. We will provide a synthesis of the included studies’ characteristics and results. If three or more studies are sufficiently similar in population and intervention, we will pool the data to conduct a meta-analysis and report findings as standardised mean differences with 95% confidence intervals. If a meta-analysis cannot be performed, we will conduct a narrative synthesis of the results and produce forest plots for individual studies. DISCUSSION: This protocol outlines the methods of a systematic review that will determine the effect of biomechanical foot-based interventions on patellofemoral joint loads. Our findings will inform clinical practice by identifying biomechanical foot-based interventions that reduce or increase patellofemoral joint loads, which may aid the treatment of adults with patellofemoral pain and osteoarthritis. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Registered with PROSPERO on the 4th of May 2022 (CRD42022315207). SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13047-022-00596-7.