The immediate effect of a soft knee brace on pain, activity limitations, self-reported knee instability, and self-reported knee confidence in patients with knee osteoarthritis

Table 4 Statistical evaluation of the outcome measures by the comparisons

	Brace vs. no brace	P value	Tight brace vs. no brace	P value	Non-tight brace vs. no brace	P value	Non-tight vs. tight brace	P value
Outcomes, B (95% CI)^a
Pain, level walk	−0.60 (−0.97–0.23)	0.001*	−0.60 (−1.01–0.06)	0.028*	–0.60 (−1.01–0.07)	0.026*	−0.24 (−0.77 0.29)	0.37
Pain, perturbed walk	−0.80 (−1.11–0.43)	<0.001**	−0.75 (−1.31–0.02)	0.012*	−0.86 (−1.36–0.36)	0.001*	−0.21 (−0.44 0.30)	0.41
10 m walk test	−0.23 (−0.31–0.13)	<0.001**	–0.22 (−0.33–0.10)	<0.001**	−0.23 (−0.31–0.14)	<0.001**	0.11 (0.01 0.20)	0.03*
GUG test	−0.23 (−0.38–0.07)	0.004*	−0.08 (−0.25 0.08)	0.335	−0.38 (−0.57–0.17)	<0.001**	0.12 (−0.03 0.27)	0.13
Outcomes, OR (95% CI)^b
Knee instability, level walk	0.41 (0.23 0.66)	0.002*	0.37 (0.19 0.68)	0.002*	0.46 (0.22 0.93)	0.018*	1.06 (0.65 1.73)	0.79
Knee instability, perturbed walk	0.36 (0.22 0.59)	<0.001**	0.34 (0.18 0.62)	0.001*	0.39 (0.22 0.67)	0.001*	1.15 (0.66 2.0)	0.59
Knee confidence, level walk	0.45 (0.31 0.65)	<0.001**	0.48 (0.31 0.74)	0.001*	0.42 (0.27 0.65)	<0.001**	1.07 (0.75 1.51)	0.69
Knee confidence, perturbed walk	0.56 (0.38 0.82)	<0.001**	0.62 (0.35 0.77)	0.004*	0.63 (0.40 0.96)	0.033*	0.97 (0.60 1.56)	0.91

^aBeta (B) coefficients (95% CI): negative value indicates reduced mean value of the outcome measure when wearing a brace
^bOdds ratios (OR) (95% CI): value <1 indicates reduced chance of self-reported knee instability and lack of confidence in the knees when wearing a brace
*Significant at a P value <0.05; **significant at a P value <0.001

ISSN: 1478-6362