RESEARCHERS at the University of Canberra (UC) are hoping to lessen unwanted hip pain in women by using flexible sports tape. 

Physiotherapy honours student Nicky Robinson is investigating whether applying flexible sports tape to problem areas will alleviate hip pain in females.

“Hip pain causes significant discomfort, loss of quality of life and reduced activity,”  Robinson says.

“Women often experience pain when walking and exercising, particularly climbing stairs, and often end up avoiding these activities as a result.”

Robinson is looking for women with hip pain, specifically Greater Trochanteric Pain Syndrome (GTPS), to take part in the study.

GTPS is a condition that causes pain over the outside of a person’s upper thigh/s and is caused by inflammation or injury to some of the tissues at the top of the thigh bone.

Robinson will test it using Dynamic Tape®, a unique, strongly elastic tape, that could reduce pain and change the way women with GTPS walk.

Clinical assistant professor of physiotherapy Dr Angie Fearon is supervising the project and says there currently isn’t any research on the role of sports tape in hip pain.

“We are trying to address this gap and see if it may be a potential treatment option for GTPS,” Fearon says.

“We think that the application of the tape may reduce the strain on muscles and tendons, resulting in decreased pain and a change the way people move.”

Motion capture technology will be used to film participants walking on a flat surface for approximately 100 metres with different applications of sports tape.

The final tape application will be left on for up to one week to see if it reduces participants’ hip pain.

Interested participates can email angie.fearon@canberra.edu.au or call 6206 8717