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Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Foot and Ankle Research 1/2014

Open Access 01-04-2014 | Meeting abstract

The effect of gender, age, bodyweight, height and body mass index on plantar soft tissue stiffness

Auteurs: Jee Chin Teoh, Taeyong Lee

Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Foot and Ankle Research | bijlage 1/2014

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Introduction

Foot abnormality has become a public health concern. Early detection of pathological soft tissue is hence an important preventive measure, especially to the elderly who generally have a higher risk of foot pathology (i.e. ulceration). However, the management of plantar tissue stiffness data is questionable.
The objective of this study is to assess the influence of gender and physical attributes such as height, weight and BMI on plantar soft tissue stiffness. It is also to evaluate whether it is necessary to isolate the differences in gender, age, bodyweight, height and body mass index in the data analysis procedure.

Methods

100 healthy subjects were recruited from National Seoul University (SNU) hospital for the experiment. During stiffness measurement [1], indentor tip probes the plantar soft tissue to obtain localized force response underneath the 2nd metatarsal head pad at 3 different dorsiflexion angles of 0°, 20°, 40° and the hallux and heel at 0° Maximum tissue deformation is fixed at 5.6mm (close to literature data) [2].
Tissue behavior was characterized via K, stiffness constant.
https://static-content.springer.com/image/art%3A10.1186%2F1757-1146-7-S1-A85/MediaObjects/13047_2014_Article_690_Equa_HTML.gif
T-tests were used to identify significant stiffness differences between left and right foot, as well as between male and female subjects on hallux and heel pad. Two-way ANOVA was used to analyze the data obtained from sub-MTH pad as the stiffness of the forefoot region. The level of significance was set at p<0.05. Pearson correlation was used to assess the relationship between bodyweight and BMI with plantar soft tissue stiffness.

Results

The male and female participants were significantly varied in weight, height and BMI, but similar in age. There was a weak correlation for both the BW and BMI with plantar tissue stiffness (Table 1a and 1b). This showed that BW and BMI are unlikely the cause for the variation in stiffness data. Gender difference also did not show influence on stiffness measurement of plantar tissue at zero MTPJ flexion (Table 2).
Table 1
Pearson correlation for (a) body weight and (b) body mass index with plantar soft tissue stiffness
(a)
Plantar location
Left
Right
Hallux
-0.1
-0.06
Heel
0.12
0.13
2nd MTH
0.08
0.08
 
20°
0.17
0.16
 
30°
0.15
0.19
(b)
Hallux
-0.09
0.02
Heel
-0.06
-0.16
2nd MTH
-0.08
-0.08
 
20°
-0.13
-0.14
 
30°
-0.19
-0.12
Table 2
T-test results of plantar tissue stiffness due to gender difference
Plantar tissue stiffness
 
p
Left
  
Hallux
 
0.72570177
Heel
 
0.21899688
2nd MTH
0.48993505
 
20°
0.05168678
 
40°
0.01657689
Right
  
Hallux
 
0.74204251
Heel
 
0.08408934
2nd MTH
0.52305598
 
20°
0.05769349
 
40°
0.02280329

Discussion

From the experimental results, it can be deduced that BW and BMI are weakly associated with plantar tissue stiffness and there was no significant difference in stiffness between male and female participants. No difference is found between left and right feet measurement. This suggests that normalizing of plantar tissue stiffness by either variable is not necessary. The data can be pooled and treated equally regardless of gender.
This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://​creativecommons.​org/​licenses/​by/​4.​0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://​creativecommons.​org/​publicdomain/​zero/​1.​0/​) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
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Literatuur
1.
go back to reference Chen W, et al: An instrumented tissue tester for measuring soft tissue property under the metatarsal heads in relation to metatarsophalangeal joint angle. Journal of Biomechanics. 2011, 44: 1804-1804.CrossRef Chen W, et al: An instrumented tissue tester for measuring soft tissue property under the metatarsal heads in relation to metatarsophalangeal joint angle. Journal of Biomechanics. 2011, 44: 1804-1804.CrossRef
2.
go back to reference Cavanagh PR: Plantar soft tissue thickness during ground contact in walking. Journal of Biomechanics. 1999, 32 (6): 623-628. 10.1016/S0021-9290(99)00028-7.CrossRefPubMed Cavanagh PR: Plantar soft tissue thickness during ground contact in walking. Journal of Biomechanics. 1999, 32 (6): 623-628. 10.1016/S0021-9290(99)00028-7.CrossRefPubMed
Metagegevens
Titel
The effect of gender, age, bodyweight, height and body mass index on plantar soft tissue stiffness
Auteurs
Jee Chin Teoh
Taeyong Lee
Publicatiedatum
01-04-2014
Uitgeverij
BioMed Central
Gepubliceerd in
Journal of Foot and Ankle Research / Uitgave bijlage 1/2014
Elektronisch ISSN: 1757-1146
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1757-1146-7-S1-A85

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