Effect of Height, Weight and BMI on Foot Postures of Young Adult Individuals

Introduction: The foot posture is maintained on three bony arches: the medial longitudinal, the lateral longitudinal and the transverse arch. It varies as the age of an individual advances. Abnormalities in the arches of foot lead to various kinds of foot deformities and predisposes to injury. Aim: To find the relation of different types of foot (normal, low and high arch) with Body Mass Index (BMI) in young individuals if any. Materials and Methods: Foot prints of 250 students of Mahatma Gandhi medical college, Pondicherry, India, between the age group of 18-24 years were taken and classified into different foot postures using Staheli's arch index. Height, weight and BMI of the individuals were recorded. The data collected was analysed using SPSS software version 16.0. Kruscal Wallis H test, Chi-square test and ANOVA was done for calculating the statistical significance. Results: There was a significant relation between weight of the individual with the type of foot (p=0.05) but that with height and BMI was not statistically significant. Conclusion: The type of foot posture may not be significantly influenced by the BMI of an individual. However, young adults with more weight have a tendency to develop low arch foot indicating that weight alone might be an important variable for development of low arch foot.