The evaluation of plantar pressure distribution in obese and non-obese adults

Although previous studies have generally reported increased plantar pressure values with obesity, none of these studies has classified the obesity. Our aim in this study was to compare the plantar pressure distribution in obese and control adults during standing and walking.

This study was performed on 100 feet of 50 study participants. The subjects gathered in two groups, each containing 25 study participants, as non-obese and class 1 obese according to their body mass index values. Static and dynamic pedobarographic evaluations were performed during standing and walking. The findings were compared between the groups and also the correlation of body mass index with the pedobarographic parameters was assessed.

The static pedobarographic evaluation revealed significantly higher values in terms of forefoot peak pressure, total plantar force and total contact area in the feet of class 1 obese subjects when only middle foot peak pressure was found to be higher in class 1 obese subjects than controls as a dynamic pedobarographic parameter. Among the static parameters body mass index was found to have positive correlation with total plantar force (r=0.50, P=0.000) and total contact area (r=0.33, P=0.019). Only middle foot peak pressure (r=0.32, P=0.025) among the dynamic pedobarographic parameters had positive correlation with body mass index.

This study may be a first step to evaluate the effect of different obesity categories on the plantar pressure values. Further studies are needed to investigate the effect of different obesity grades.