Impact of foot type, quadriceps angle, and minimalist footwear on static postural stability

Background: In years 2011-2014, 8.6 million sports-related injuries were reported each year and falls have been identified as a main cause. Purpose: To determine the impact of foot type, quadriceps angle, and Vibram™ footwear on postural stability. Methods: Twentyour males (age 21.38±2.50yr; height 1.74±0.06m; mass 71.24±10.37kg) were categorized as pronated, supinated, and neutral feet using FPI and bilateral quadriceps angles were measured. Participants were tested on barefoot, Vibram™ Bikila and Vibram™ Trek (VT), on stable/unstable, bilateral/unilateral, eyes open/closed conditions. Sway variables were analyzed using 3(foot type) × 3(footwear) repeated measures ANOVA. Pearson product correlation was performed for quadriceps angle with sway variables. Results: Footwear main effect significance was evident in all conditions except stable unilateral eyes open condition, with lower values for barefoot followed by VT. Conclusion: Static balance in BF is superior to shod conditions in all situations except the extremely challenging condition, in which VT showed greater balance