(HealthDayNews) -- For safety's sake, the "little old lady in tennis shoes" should become the little old lady in basketball sneakers.
The Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute in Randwick, Australia, tested the balance of 42 women between the ages of 60 and 92 while they were wearing low-top shoes, high-top shoes and when they went barefoot.
According to the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, the study showed that all the women had better balance in high tops, while low tops were no more useful than going barefoot.
And participants didn't necessarily have to wear athletic shoes. As part of the study, researchers compared the effects of hard soles and soft soles, and found the two were just about equal.
