The impact of BMI value on the Wejsflog index, and the foot pain assessment

Abstract

Introduction. The foot is not only the organ having great stability and overload endurance, but also one being a dynamic spring and, due to this feature, functioning as a shock absorber. Aims of the work 1. Determining if there exists a correlation between Wejsflog index and the body mass of patient; 2. Determining if the body mass is a risk factor for the transverse arch lowering; 3. Determining if the body mass and the structure of the transverse foot arch influence the appearance of the foot pain ailment. Material and methods. The research was carried out in Krakow in 2012-2013 period. The examined group of the research consisted of 249 patients, including 178 women and 71 men, aged 21-88 (average age of 52 years). Results. P-value of the chi-square test is less than 0.05, thus the value of Wejsflog index significantly depends on the BMI: the higher the BMI, the more frequently the transverse arch lowering occurs. P-value of the Mann-Whitney test is greater than 0.05, thus the evaluation of the pain strength is statistically not dependent on the Wejsflog index. Conclusions 1. The influence of the correlation between the body mass index (BMI) and the frequency of occurrence of the transverse foot arch lowering measured by the Wejsflog index has been proven. 2. Increased body mass defined by the body mass index (BMI) as overweight and obesity is a significant risk factor for the transverse foot arch lowering. 3. Increased body mass index as well as the transverse foot arch lowering measured by the Wejsflog index have no influence on the occurrence of the foot pain ailment.