Development of a strain gauge based foot-gripping force meter

Abstract

Here, we report on foot-gripping force meter developed by the authors and the measurement data from the apparatus. The apparatus uses a strain-gauge to measure the time taken for the foot-gripping force to rise from a minimum of 0.1 kg to the maximum. Data was obtained for 32 legs of 16 healthy adult men (mean age 22.3 ± 5.5 years). The average foot-gripping force was 17.4 ± 4.5 kg and the average time taken to reach the maximum was 0.66 ± 0.26 seconds. With regard to measurement reproduction, foot-gripping force had an ICC=0.953, and the time taken to reach the maximum was ICC=0.723, suggesting that they have adequate reproducibility for application in the clinical setting.