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Purpose: To assess the impact of different footwear and sleeping duration on postural stability and fall risk in young, healthy people.
Methods: Forty-eight participants (n = 44 females, 4 males) from Umm Al-Qura University students aged 20-30 years without lower extremity injury were tested for postural stability and fall risk tests under three footwear Conditions: barefoot, wearing Saudi western sandals (Sharqi) for males and slippers for females, and wearing various types of socks on the Biodex Stability System™. Three trials of 20 seconds for each footwear type were completed.
Results: There were a statistically significant differences (P < 0.05) in the postural stability for barefoot and each of the following tests, thick socks (P=0.002), Slipper (P=0.000), and non-slip silicone socks (P=0.000). However, there were no significant differences in the postural stability between other types of footwear. There were statistically significant difference for the fall risk between barefoot and non-slip silicone socks (P=0.016) and no significant differences with other footwear. The results indicated no significant differences between Postural Stability or Fall risk for three sleep hours conditions.
Conclusion: Wearing specially designed footwear types improved balance, potentially reducing fall risk. However, sleep duration didn’t significantly affect postural stability or fall risk.
