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B.-F. Ou1, C.-C. Kuo2,3, T.X.D. Nguyen1, T.-C. Tsai1, M.-Y. Kuo1
1China Medical Umiversity, Department of Physical Therapy, Taichung, Taiwan, 2Taichung Tzu Chi Hospital, Department of Neurology, Taichung, Taiwan, 3Tzu Chi University, School of Post-Baccalaureate Chinese Medicine, Hualien, Taiwan
Background: The function of the foot medial longitudinal arch (MLA) is to play shock absorption during dynamic activities. The height of foot MLA produces dynamic changes to absorb impact forces. In clinic, measurement of foot MLA height must be taken at static standing position in order to make sure the accuracy. Therefore, we want to understand the relationship between static standing measurement and dynamic arch height. However, there is no research to investigate and measure the changes of the height of foot MAL at static standing position during and following fast walking.
Purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate the changes in the height of foot MLA by static standing position at different times during and following one hour on fast walking.
Methods: Seven healthy adults (three females and four male; BMI: 23.0±3.3; Age: 23.3±1.6) were participated this study. The inclusion criteria of this study were 20 to 30 years old and without any neuromuscular disorder of lower limbs. Foot assessment, scanning and translation (FAST) System (Enford International Company, Taiwan) is a novel three-dimension foot scan system with high reliability. It was used to measure foot arch height (FAH) and normalize foot arch height (NFAH). NFAH was to use foot length to normalize arch height. Each subject was asked to walk on a treadmill at a speed of 5 km/hr. All subjects walked on treadmill for 5 minutes, and then the treadmill was adjusted to seven degrees up-slope for 15 minutes. This procedure was repeated for three times which was to mimic walking on the road. The foot measurement of each subject started at the pre-walking, after walking 40 minutes, after walking 60 minutes, and after resting 30 minutes. The Wilcoxon-sign-rank test was used to test FAH and NFAH at different time events. The level of statistical significance was set to 5% (P < 0.05).
Results: The FAH and NFAH was 11.6±3.8mm and 3.63±1.23% respectively at pre-test, 11±3.3mm and 3.52±1.04% after walking 40min, 11.7±3.7mm and 3.73±1.14% after walking 60min, 12.2±3.5mm and 3.85±1.17% after resting 30min. The height of foot MLA seemed to decreased in the first 40 minutes. It began to increase even after 60 minutes and after 30 minutes of resting. The comparison of FAH and NFAH were statistically significant differences between time events (p<0.05).
Conclusion(s): These results may be due to the contribution of the foot intrinsic muscles. During long-term fast walking, the foot intrinsic muscles may be activated to against large external loads. The foot muscle showed greater tension after intensively contraction. This increased foot intrinsic muscle tension leads to the increase of the FAH and NFAH. The FAH and NFAH increase during and following one-hour fast walking in healthy young adults.
Implications: Training foot muscles may assist the formation of foot arch during dynamic weight bearing activities. The changes in the height of foot MLA will give a reference to the height of the foot insole in healthy young runner.
Funding, acknowledgements: This work was supported through Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan.
Keywords: foot medial longitudinal arch, walking, foot arch height
Topic: Musculoskeletal: lower limb
Did this work require ethics approval? Yes
Institution: Taichung Tzu Chi Hospital, Taiwan.
Committee: Research Ethics Committee of Taichung Tzu Chi Hospital, Taiwan.
Ethics number: REC109-12
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
