To find the reference values of arch index in normal females (18 - 25) by footprint method- a survey-based study

Abstract

Background

Conventional shoes and sandals are built with features which reduce the workload of the foot’s intrinsic muscles, these features potentially interfere with the normal function and development of arch. If shoes weaken the intrinsic muscles, they could increase the likelihood of pes planus. overpronation is linked with a greater risk of injury due to increased rearfoot motion, tibial accommodation and other components of the lower extremity kinematic chain. The arch index is a relationship between central and posterior regions of the footprint. So the current study focuses on an attempt to find the reference value of the arch index of the foot.

Purpose of the study

To find the reference values of the arch index in normal females using foot print method.

Materials and methodology

After fulfillment of the inclusion criteria, a total 100 subjects were selected. The ink footprints were taken by equally impregnating the foot with ink in the ink box and requesting the person to put the right foot on to the platform but left a foot out of the platform and asked the person is asked to stand up weight bearing on both the limbs equally and sit down again. Slowly the foot is lifted from the paper. Assessment of outcome measures was simple ink foot print method.

Results

The results show that statistically, average mean of the sample population (0.58) lies in a normal distributed curve with 69 % of population lying in 1SD from mean and 96% of population lying in 2SD from mean calculated from the Z score referring to the Z score table distribution.

Conclusion

Based on this study, it was observed that even after excluding flat foot, the value of arch index of some individuals were very low and some individuals were high, it is probably due to the skeletal structure and function of the foot, the footwear you use daily, which we did not objectively measure.