Features of plantar pressure distribution of Chinese children aged between two and eleven

Abstract

Since foot biomechanics of Chinese healthy children has not been systematically investigated, the aim of this study was to comprehend the features of plantar pressure distribution of those subjects. Totally, 895 healthy children aged between two and 11 were recruited and those with the foot deformities were excluded by visual inspection. Children's plantar pressure was measured by Footscan pressure plate with two-step protocol and self-selected speed. Regions of plantar pressure were divided into ten parts: hallux, toes 2-5, the first to fifth metatarsal head, mid foot, medial heel and lateral heel, at which parameters of peak 2 pressure (N/cm2 ), relative pressure time integral (%) and relative contact area (%) were calculated. Error-bar plot was drawn to interpret the change of plantar pressure with the age. Moreover, the reliability of this study was evaluated by intra-class correlation and coefficient of variance with the significance level of 0.05 and confidence interval of 95%. Our outcomes show that plantar pressure was generally increasing with the foot development in the most foot regions, except mid foot area; further, significant gender differences existed in a few regions and for boys a higher pressure and a larger contact area were recorded. At last, results of all three parameters were recorded with moderate to good reliability and the reliability of all variables was improving with the age. Overall, our study provided a normative plantar pressure distribution of healthy Chinese children and those findings could be used in clinical abnormal feet evaluation.