Foot Posture and Plantar Loading With Ankle Bracing

Abstract

Context Arch height is one important aspect of foot posture. An estimated 20% of the population has pes planus and 20% has pes cavus. These abnormal foot postures can alter lower extremity kinematics and plantar loading and contribute to injury risk. Ankle bracing is commonly used in sport to prevent these injuries, but no researchers have examined the effects of ankle bracing on plantar loading. Objective To evaluate the effects of ankle braces on plantar loading during athletic tasks. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Laboratory. Patients or Other Participants A total of 36 participants (11 men, 25 women; age = 23.1 ± 2.5 years, height = 1.72 ± 0.09 m, mass = 66.3 ± 14.7 kg) were recruited for this study. Intervention(s) Participants completed walking, running, and cutting tasks in 3 bracing conditions: no brace, lace-up ankle-support brace, and semirigid brace. Main Outcome Measure(s) We analyzed the plantar-loading variables of contact area, maximum force, and force-time integral for 2 midfoot and 3 forefoot regions and assessed the displacement of the center of pressure. A 3 × 3 mixed-model repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to determine the effects of brace and foot type (α = .05). Results Foot type affected force measures in the middle (P range = .003–.047) and the medial side of the foot (P range = .004–.04) in all tasks. Brace type affected contact area in the medial midfoot during walking (P = .005) and cutting (P = .01) tasks, maximum force in the medial and lateral midfoot during all tasks (P < .001), and force-time integral in the medial midfoot during all tasks (P < .001). Portions of the center-of-pressure displacement were affected by brace wear in both the medial-lateral and anterior-posterior directions (P range = .001–.049). Conclusions Ankle braces can be worn to redistribute plantar loading. Additional research should be done to evaluate their effectiveness in injury prevention.

The Effects of Structural Characteristics of the Rollator on the Elderly’s Gait Strategies in Various Walking Environments

“…The mean force was normalized to body weight (BW) for each subject. The contact area was normalized to the total contact area of the insole and therefore is reported in units of normalized insole contact area (NICA) [21].…”

Mixed Comparison of Intervention with Assistive Devices for Plantar Pressure Distribution and Anatomical Characteristics in Adults with Pes Cavus: Systemic Review with Network Meta-Analysis

“…After the selection and screening of 499 titles and abstracts, 67 duplicated studies were removed, and a total of 432 studies were taken into account during the screening procedure. Then, 12 trials mentioned intervention with assistive devices for pes cavus in the abstract, of which 2 were excluded as retrospective analyses of previous trials, 5 were excluded as ineligible interventions, 1 was excluded as ineligible comparators, 1 was excluded as having no raw data, and 3 were included in the final analysis [13,21,38]. The flow diagram is presented in Figure 1.…”

“…Additionally, considering the chronic ankle instability induced by pes cavus, ankle braces may also serve as a non-surgical intervention to prevent and alleviate pes cavus symptoms, redistributing the load on the sole. However, the mechanism of its effect on preventing and alleviating pes cavus needs further investigation [21].…”

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