Immediate Effect of Arch Support Foot Orthoses on Lower Limb Intera-Joint Coupling Angles during Walking in Children with Flat Foot

Individuals with flat foot may have sensorimotor impairments that affect coordination at the lower limb joints. The purpose of the present study was to compare joint coupling angles of the lower limbs during walking with and without arch support foot orthoses in children with flexible flat foot.
A total of 15 male teenagers (age: 10.3±1.5 year) with flexible flat foot, after obtaining their parents’ permission, volunteered to participate in the study. Three-dimensional kinematic data were collected while subjects walk with and without arch support foot orthoses. The intra-joint coupling angles were calculated using a vector coding technique. Paired sample t-test was used for statistical analysis. Alpha level was set at P
The results demonstrated that there are significant differences in ankle-knee intra-joint coupling angles in both sagittal (P=0.002) and frontal (P=0.035) planes between the control and experimental groups during loading response phase, while the results also demonstrated that foot orthotic device reduce horizontal knee–hip coupling angle significantly during loading response (P=0.008), mid stance (P=0.009), and push off (P During orthoses condition, knee flexion angle was greater than that of sagittal ankle joint motion. This indicated positive effects of orthoses in injury prevention. The arch support foot orthoses that was used in the present study in male children with flat foot caused the highest alterations in lower limb intra-joint coupling angles in loading response phase. However, further study is needed to prove thie claim.