Investigation of the Relationship between Lower Extremity Injuries and Foot Shape in Elite Karateka

The lower extremity in karate is mostly in the closed kinetic chain. Accordingly, foot posture can play an important role in determining the function of the lower extremity. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between lower extremity injuries and foot shape in the elite Karateka of Province of Alborz.

This was a cross-sectional study. A total of 100 elite Karateka (50 males and 50 females) were selected. 50 of participants had the non-contact lower-limb injuries and 50 had no lower extremity injuries. The navicular drop test was used to evaluate the type of foot.The independent t-test and chi-square test were employed to compare the study variables and also the phi correlation coefficient (phi) was used to measure association between two variables. All statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 25 (α<0.05).

The results demonstrated that there was no significant difference between the kata and kumite athletes with respect to the prevalence of both foot abnormalities and lower extremity injuries (p = 0.837; p = 0.211). On the other hand, a significant relationship was observed between lower limb injury and type of foot so that flat foot could significantly predict lower extremity injuries in athletes participating in karate (p = 0.003).

the results of this study showed that the prevalence of foot abnormalities among karateka was high and prevention of lower limb injuries in karate prevention of flat foot and its correction of it is very important.