The Relationship between anthropometric factors and flat feet

Despite extensive research on the relationship between anthropometric factors associated with flat foot deformity, still there is no consensus on its relationship with these factors and how to measure it. Thus, the present study was conducted to study the relationship between flat foot and BMI (body mass index) and body fat levels in 10-12 year-old school children.
The study population consisted of 243 school children in Qom, with an average age of 11.47±0.82 years, weight 39.4±10.86 kg, and height 145.94±7.91 cm. To assess the foot condition, the foot arch index Staheli, Arch Index (AI or Arch Index), and anthropometric factors were used to assess the amount of fat (by Jackson Pollock) and BMI. To calculate the relationship between variables, the chi-square test (Ci-square), with confidence interval of 95% and to check the repeatability of the data, the correlation coefficient (Interclass correlation coefficient) was run. Data was analyzed via SPSS (v. 18) (p ≤ 0.05).
The prevalence of flat foot was observed to be 27.6 percent. Also, it was found that there is a significant relationship between flat foot and overweight and obesity as well as the amount of fat in the two groups (P= 0.05) and BMI (P= 0.05). Also, the results of the statistical analyses revealed that no significant relationship existed between the arch on the right and left foot.
The present study showed that the prevalence of flat feet in children with overweight and obesity, according to both methods of measuring body fat percentage and BMI, was high. Therefore, it can be concluded that overweight children are at risk of flat foot. Due to the susceptibility of overweight and obese children to infections regarding the flat foot and thus the future problems, more serious attention to screening, prescription of corrective exercises, and providing facilities for them to increase physical activity seem to be necessary measures to take.