Experimental Gait Analysis to Study Stress Distribution of the Human Foot

Researchers and clinicians are increasingly using plantar pressure and force measurement system to evaluate foot functions. This research evaluates the quality and reliability of a Tekscan HR mat to study the plantar pressures and forces acting during walking, running, jumping, and standing of healthy subjects. The following regions of the foot were investigated: heel, mid foot, metatarsophalangeal joint, hallux, and the toes. The arches of both feet of the three healthy subjects in the gait analysis were presented which addresses the balancing issues of the body during locomotion. The results indicated that the peaks at the big toe (79.4 ± 8.5 N/cm(2), p = 0.0001) were the maximum compared to forefoot (40.3 ± 3.3 N/cm(2), p = 0.001), to midfoot (7.5 ± 1.3 N/cm(2), p = 0.001), and to heel (27.8 ± 3.9 N/cm(2), p = 0.0002) for jump activity. The running activity demonstrated similar results as jump where the maximum peak pressures were absorbed at the big toe region. The heel region during running (86.3 ± 12.6 N/cm(2), p = 0.001) showed three times the pressure peak compared to the jump land (27.8 ± 3.9 N/cm(2), p = 0.0002) activity. The measurement system proved to be highly capable of detecting heel strike and toe-off moments.