Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.
About Walking Problems
If you are like most people, you walk thousands of steps each day. You walk to do your daily activities, get around, and exercise. It's something that you usually don't think about. But for those people who have a problem with walking, daily life can be more difficult.
Walking problems may cause you to:
- Walk with your head and neck bent over
- Drag, drop, or shuffle your feet
- Have irregular, jerky movements when walking
- Take smaller steps
- Waddle
- Walk more slowly or stiffly
The pattern of how you walk is called your gait. Many different diseases and conditions can affect your gait and lead to problems with walking. They include:
- Abnormal development of the muscles or bones of your legs or feet
- Arthritis of the hips, knees, ankles, or feet
- Cerebellar disorders, which are disorders of the area of the brain that controls coordination and balance
- Foot problems, including corns and calluses, sores, and warts
- Infections
- Injuries, such as fractures (broken bones), sprains, and tendinitis
- Movement disorders, such as Parkinson's disease
- Neurologic diseases, including multiple sclerosis and peripheral nerve disorders
- Vision problems
To make a diagnosis, your health care provider will ask about your medical history and do a physical exam. This will include checking your bones and muscles and doing a neurological exam. In some cases, you may have other tests, such as lab or imaging tests.
Treatment of walking problems depends on the cause. If the cause is a medical condition, treating that condition often improves your walking. Some common types of treatments for walking problems may include:
- Medicines
- Mobility aids such as walkers and canes
- Physical therapy
- Special shoes, insoles, splints, or braces
- Surgery
It sits within Bones, Joints and Muscles and Brain and Nerves.
When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.
Research on Walking Problems
106 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.
What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.
Research currently under way
- Response to Exercise and Nitric Oxide in PADNorthwestern University
- Groningen Meander Walking Test in Older Adults With Balance ProblemsOrdu University
- Healthy Aging as Black Adults, In It Together: a Comparative Effectiveness Study of Chronic Pain and Cognitive DeclineMassachusetts General Hospital
- Far Red Light to Improve Functioning in PADNorthwestern University
- Physical Activity Level at Home in CMT1A Patients: Wearable Sensor AssessmentUniversity Hospital, Limoges
- Impact of Loss Aversion Messaging and Anticipated Regret for Inaction on Exercise Adherence in Older AdultsMilton S. Hershey Medical Center
Research already completed
- Heat Therapy, Functional Capacity, and Vascular Health in Older AdultsUniversity of North Texas Health Science Center
- How Stroke Affects Leg Muscles When WalkingUniversity Hospital, Limoges
Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.
Where to read more
Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.
Start Here
- Walking abnormalitiesMedical Encyclopedia
Diagnosis and Tests
- Foot ProblemsAmerican Academy of Family Physicians
- Foot Push-Up TestAmerican College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons
- That Pain in Your Back Could Be Linked to Your FeetAmerican College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons
Living With
- Mobility Aids: MedlinePlus Health TopicNational Library of Medicine
- Prescription Custom Orthotics and Shoe InsertsAmerican Podiatric Medical Association
Clinical Trials
- ClinicalTrials.gov: Gait ApraxiaNational Institutes of Health
- ClinicalTrials.gov: Gait AtaxiaNational Institutes of Health
- ClinicalTrials.gov: Gait Disorders, NeurologicNational Institutes of Health
Medical subject headings
Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Gait Disorders, Neurologic, Gait Ataxia, Gait Apraxia. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.
This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Walking Problems, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.