Introduction: The foot and ankle complex represent kinetic linkage between the ground and lower extremity and its pathological biomechanics could have an influence on proximal joints of lower extremity, especially knee and hip joints. Athletes’ ankles and lower extremities are under constant loads and suffer overuse injuries. We anticipate that there would be more impact on proximal joints of lower extremity among trained athletes than non-trained athletes. Purpose: The thesis aims to identify the difference in the hip passive rotation range of motion, passive dorsal flexion range of motion, knee alignment and foot position between the experimental and the control group. We also wanted to identify the connection between Foot posture index and other measured parameters within the observed groups. Materials and methods: The study was conducted on a sample of 17 handball players of the handball club Trimo Trebnje (experimental group) and on 16 by gender and age comparable non-athletes (control group). We measured the passive hip internal and external rotation range of motion, the passive dorsal range of motion with an extended knee to identify m. gastrocnemius length, as well as the knee alignment and foot position measured by Foot posture index. The groups were compared by the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test. In order to estimate the connection between the dependent and the individual independent variables, Spearman’s correlation coefficients were calculated. Results: A statistically significant difference between groups was found in the passive dorsal flexion range of motion (15° compared to 13°) and knee alignment (0° compared to 1°) (p<0,05), otherwise there was no difference. There was also no statistically significant connection between the ankle position and other observed parameters. Discussion and conclusion: Based on our results we can conclude that handball players have a more flexible m. gastrocnemius and greater valgus deviation of knees (p<0,05) than the experimental group. Otherwise, we were unable to confirm a correlation between Foot Posture Index and other observed parameters. We have to be careful with the interpretation of the results, since handball players did not have more pronated or supinated feet than the control group, which was our initial hypothesis. We would need to include more subjects and use more objective measurement tools for decisive conclusions. This is one of the first studies worldwide that examined the foot position and its influence on other structures of lower extremity. It provides a good starting point for further research.
|
