Relationship between static foot posture and foot mobility

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree of association between static foot posture and mobility.The static foot posture and foot mobility of 203 healthy individuals was assessed and then analyzed to determine if low arched or "pronated" feet are more mobile than high arched or "supinated" feet.The study demonstrated that those individuals with a lower standing dorsal arch height and/or a wider standing midfoot width had greater mobility in their foot. In addition, those individuals with higher Foot Posture Index (FPI) values demonstrated greater mobility and those with lower FPI values demonstrated less mobility. Finally, the amount of foot mobility that an individual has can be predicted reasonably well using either a 3 or 4 variable linear regression model.Because of the relationship between static foot posture and mobility, it is recommended that both be assessed as part of a comprehensive evaluation of a individual with foot problems.It is not uncommon for a person's foot posture and mobility to be assessed during a clinical examination. In such situations, the clinician uses both foot posture and foot mobility to evaluate the person's overall foot function as well as to assist them in the proper management of a variety of different foot pathologies. Unfortunately, the exact relationship between foot posture and mobility is not well established and therefore the value of assessing both features has not been validated. In addition, the most valid and useful measures to determine foot posture or mobility in a clinical examination have not been established.A number of different methods have been described in the literature to quantify or classify standing foot posture. The Foot Posture Index (FPI) has been proposed as a fast, simple method of visually classifying foot postures as either pronated, supinated or normal based upon six different visual foot posture criteria [1]. The FPI has demonstrated moderate to good intra-rater and inter-rater reliabil