Prevalence of foot and knee deformities among high school female students in Tehran District No.5.

Foot and knee deformities are among common complaints of patients referred to the orthopedic centers. Most of naturally occurring lower limb deformities in children, which are rather common, would be corrected with further normal growth. However, a small percentage of these problems remain unresolved and may cause complications in the future. The purpose of this descriptive study was to determine the prevalence of foot and knee deformities (such as, genovarus, genovalgus, flat foot, …) among one thousand female high-school students in of Tehran District No.5. Also relationships of deformities with age, familial and personal history and severity of clinical symptoms were studied. To indicate the severity of symptoms of genovarus and genovalgus, bilateral medial femorocondylar distance and bimalleolar distance were measured respectively. Severity of hallux valgus was determined by measuring the angle formed by medial border of foot and medial border of great toe. Also clinical observance of patient's sole while standing was used to evaluate whether the patient had the pescavus or flat foot. 30.4% of the studid subjects had knee abnormalities, of which 27.5% were classified as genovarus and 2.9% as genovalgus. 11.2% suffered from foot anomalies, of which 0.2% had pescavus and 11% had flat foot. Prevalence of hallux valgus was 12.7%. Meaningful relationships were observed between foot and knee deformities and other variables such as age, birth order and severity of clinical symptoms. There was a significant association between foot deformities and familial or personal history. No significant association was detected between knee deformities and familial or personal history. These findings point to the importance of proper physical examination, early diagnosis and on-time treatment of foot and knee deformities in children.