Reliability of plantar pressure platforms.

Area of Science:

• Biomechanics
• Medical Device Technology
• Clinical Measurement

Background:

• Plantar pressure measurement is crucial for research and clinical applications.
• Previous studies focused on device accuracy and data collection consistency.
• The reliability of different plantar pressure devices on the same individuals remained unknown.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the intra-mat, intra-manufacturer, and inter-manufacturer reliability of plantar pressure parameters.
• To determine the number of trials needed for a stable plantar pressure mean estimate.

Main Methods:

• Twenty-two healthy adults performed ten walking trials on two Novel emed-x(®) and two Tekscan MatScan(®) devices.
• Intraclass correlation (ICC) was used to evaluate agreement between devices.
• Plantar pressure parameters were analyzed for reliability.

Main Results:

• All intra-platform and inter-emed-x(®) reliability correlations exceeded 0.70.
• Inter-MatScan(®) reliability was high (ICC > 0.70) for most parameters, especially with a 5-trial average.
• Inter-manufacturer reliability was excellent (ICC > 0.70) for most parameters with both 5 and 10-trial averages.
• All parameters stabilized within 90% of the mean estimate in five trials.

Conclusions:

• Plantar pressure measurement devices demonstrate encouraging reliability across different platforms and manufacturers.
• A minimum of five trials is sufficient to achieve a stable mean estimate for plantar pressure parameters.
• These findings support the use of data collected across different plantar pressure devices in research and clinical practice.