Influence of sport in foot posture

Abstract

Objective: To analyze if the federated athletes on active at least two seasons, recruited from the Centro Andaluz de Medicina del Deporte presents variations in the position of the foot and check whether high impact sports have a greater impact on it comparing with low impact those. Method: observational, analytical and transversal study. The total sample consisted of 89 participants. They were classified into three study groups: group 0 non-athletes; group 1 or high impact athletes (basketball, football and athletics) and group 2 or low impact athletes (swimming and cycling). Foot posture was analyzed using the Navicular Drop Test and the Postural Foot Index.

Results: The outcomes obtained for the Navicular Drop Test variable were: 0.65±0.71/0.74±0.70 (left / right Navicular Drop Test) for group 0; 0.37±0.32/0.42±0.37 (left / right Navicular Drop Test) for group 1 and 0.29±0.28/0.32±0.31(left / right Navicular Drop Test) for group 2. However, the Postural Foot Index results were: 6.53±0.40/6.75±0.42 (left / right Postural Foot Index) in group 0; 3.25±0.34/3.1±0.38 (left / right Postural Foot Index) in group 1 and of 3.38±0.48/3.23±0.40 (left / right Postural Foot Index) in group 2, showing statistically significant differences (p <0.001) between groups 0-1 and 0-2, but not between 1-2.

Conclusions: we observed that the participants that have practiced federated sports during at least two or more years, tend to show a more neutral position of the foot due to the non active subjects, however the impact rate implied by this practice does not seem to be relevant.