Cent Eur J Public Health 2022, 30(3):185-189 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a7109

Influence of school backpack load on plantar foot pressure during walking in 9-11 years old girls

Štefan Balkó1, James J. Tufano2, Marek Jelínek3, Zdeněk Svoboda4, Monika Błaszczyszyn5, František Vaverka6
1 Faculty of Education, Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic
2 Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
3 Faculty of Health Studies, Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic
4 Faculty of Physical Culture, Palacký University in Olomouc, Olomouc, Czech Republic
5 Faculty of Physical Education and Physiotherapy, Opole University of Technology, Opole, Poland
6 Faculty of Education, University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic

Objective: This study aimed to assess the relative load of the midfoot and the metatarsals of both feet when schoolchildren walked with backpacks of different loads.

Methods: A group of 12 healthy girls (9.9 ± 0.8 years; 33.8 ± 6.7 kg, 1.40 ± 0.10 m) walked barefoot to assess plantar pressures during gait without load (L0%) and with a loaded backpack equal to 10% (L10%) and 20% (L20%) of their body weight. A Footscan® system (RSscan International, Belgium) was used to determine the contact area and relative pressure impulse in the midfoot and metatarsals on the dominant (DL) and non-dominant legs (NL).

Results: The effect of load was significant for the contact area of the midfoot for both NL (p = 0.013) and DL (p = 0.001). In the metatarsals, there was significantly greater relative impulse during L10% compared to L0% in the first (p = 0.041) and second (p = 0.050) metatarsals of the DL. Comparing the NL and DL showed significantly greater relative impulse on the DL in the fourth metatarsal during L10% (p = 0.023), greater contact area in the fifth metatarsal during L0% (p = 0.050), and greater impulse in the midfoot during L20% (p = 0.028) on the NL.

Conclusions: The school backpack load influences relative plantar pressure distribution, especially in the midfoot. Further, our findings suggest greater propulsion of the DL and supporting function of the NL.

Keywords: gait, kinetics, health, biomechanics, overload, laterality

Received: September 15, 2021; Revised: July 30, 2022; Accepted: July 30, 2022; Published: September 30, 2022  Show citation

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Balkó Š, Tufano JJ, Jelínek M, Svoboda Z, Błaszczyszyn M, Vaverka F. Influence of school backpack load on plantar foot pressure during walking in 9-11 years old girls. Cent Eur J Public Health. 2022;30(3):185-189. doi: 10.21101/cejph.a7109. PubMed PMID: 36239367.
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