Overweight, obesity and foot posture in children: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between obesity and foot posture in children.

Methods: This cross-sectional study is based on a sample population of 1798 schoolchildren (873 boys and 925 girls) aged between 6 and 12 years. The height and weight of each subject was measured and the body mass index (BMI) was calculated. Foot posture was described by means of the foot posture index (FPI). The differences among various foot postures in relation to BMI, for the total sample, were tested using the Games-Howell test. In addition, cross tabulation for different gender groups and BMI categories was applied and tested using χ² .

Results: The mean BMI was 18.94 (standard deviation (SD) 3.65 kg/m² ) in the boys and 18.90 (SD 3.64 kg/m² ) in the girls, and the FPI was 3.97 (SD 2.98) in the boys and 3.68 (SD 2.86) in the girls. The FPI results show that among the boys aged 6 years, the right foot was more pronated than among the girls (FPI 4.8-4.1, P = 0.034), while among the boys aged 7 years, this was true for the left foot (4.4-3.7, P = 0.049). For the other ages, there were no significant differences in the FPI between the sexes. There were no significant differences between the value, or categories, of BMI and the FPI in the different age groups.

Conclusion: In children aged between 6 and 12 years, body mass does not appear to have an important bearing on static foot posture. Furthermore, the variables gender and age are of scant importance in determining foot posture in children.

Keywords: children; cross-sectional study; foot posture; obesity; overweight.