Effectiveness of stretching exercises in conservative therapy of plantar fasciitis (PF)

Kowal, Alicja, Spozowski, Karol. Effectiveness of stretching exercises in conservative therapy of plantar fasciitis (PF). Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2022;12(9):621-631. eISSN 2391-8306. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/JEHS.2022.12.09.075 https://apcz.umk.pl/JEHS/article/view/39792 https://zenodo.org/record/7064859 The journal has had 40 points in Ministry of Education and Science of Poland parametric evaluation. Annex to the announcement of the Minister of Education and Science of December 21, 2021. No. 32343. Has a Journal's Unique Identifier: 201159. Scientific disciplines assigned: Physical Culture Sciences (Field of Medical sciences and health sciences); Health Sciences (Field of Medical Sciences and Health Sciences). Punkty Ministerialne z 2019 - aktualny rok 40 punktów. Załącznik do komunikatu Ministra Edukacji i Nauki z dnia 21 grudnia 2021 r. Lp. 32343. Posiada Unikatowy Identyfikator Czasopisma: 201159. Przypisane dyscypliny naukowe: Nauki o kulturze fizycznej (Dziedzina nauk medycznych i nauk o zdrowiu); Nauki o zdrowiu (Dziedzina nauk medycznych i nauk o zdrowiu). © The Authors 2022; This article is published with open access at Licensee Open Journal Systems of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author (s) and source are credited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non commercial license Share alike. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper. Received: 21.08.2022. Revised: 02.09.2022. Accepted: 08.09.2022. Effectiveness of stretching exercises in conservative therapy of plantar fasciitis (PF) Alicja Kowal1, Karol Spozowski1 1Student, Faculty of Health Science, Medical University of Lublin ORCID ID and e-mail adress: Alicja Kowal: Faculty of Health Science, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0203-1743 alicjakowal2000@gmail.com Karol Spozowski: Faculty of Health Science, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2111-8249 spozok@gmail.com ABSTRACT Introduction and objective: Plantar fasciitis affects both young active patients and older people leading a sedentary lifestyle. It is result from chronic overload of the plantar fascia. About 80% of patients with plantar fasciitis improve within 12 months with non-surgical treatment. Nonsurgical management includes e.g. activity modification, cooling, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, stretching and strengthening exercises and manual therapy. Materials and methods: PubMed database was searched. The criteria for qualifying the articles for the review were the following keywords: plantar fasciitis, muscle stretching, exercise, manual therapy, heel spur. 11 articles from 2017 to 2022 were analyzed. Description of the state of knowledge: Calf stretching is one of the treatments for plantar fasciitis with the best results in the long run. In turn, strengthening exercises turn out to be more effective in a short time. One should also not forget about influence other methods of conservative treatment, such as cooling, orthoses or physical therapy, that support and accelerate the treatment process. Summary: Strengthening exercises of the plantar fascia are more effective than stretching in terms of reducing pain and improving function in the short term, while stretching exercises show better results in the long term. The best results are obtained by combining stretching of the triceps calf muscle with other methods of conservative treatment. There are no studies supporting the hypothesis that stretching alone is more effective in the treatment process than other methods and placebo. Key words: plantar fasciitis, muscle stretching, exercise, manual therapy, heel spu