Foot orthoses in children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA)

Currently there is limited evidence supporting podiatric treatment of children with JIA. The foot orthoses (FOs) prescribed to JIA children so far appeared to be very expensive and required long time to manufacture before the fitting. This multicentre single-blinded randomised controlled trial (RCT) aimed to determine whether pre-formed FOs that can be prescribed at chair side, impacted on pain, quality of life (primary outcomes) and/or gait-parameters (secondary outcomes) in children affected by JIA. The results strongly suggest that FOs are effective in improving pain, quality of life and most gait parameters in JIA children. FOs can be customised at chair-side so JIA children can receive immediate podiatric benefit from the same day of the biomechanical assessment. Compliancy rate proved to be extremely high confirming that the podiatric treatment is well accepted by JIA children. Primary and secondary outcome’s results, strongly support the use of FOs in the treatment of JIA children, which highlights the important role of the podiatrists within the multidisciplinary team in paediatric rheumatology.