Differences in foot pressures between Caucasians and Indians

BackgroundIndians are the largest single ethnic minority group in the United Kingdom and form more than one million of the current population. No studies have investigated foot pressure differences between Caucasians and Indians.ObjectiveThe aim of our study was to investigate the in-shoe pressure differences in Caucasians and Indians using the Pedar®-m (Novel GmbH, Germany).MethodsThe study included 12 Caucasians and 21 Indians. Peak pressure (PP), contact area (CA), contact time (CT), pressure–time integral (PTI), force–time integral (FTI), instant of peak pressure (IPP), maximum force (MaxF) and mean force (MeanF) were recorded.ResultsCaucasians had higher significant PP compared to Indians under the heel (293 kPa vs. 251 kPa; P < 0.001), 1st metatarsal head (294 kPa vs. 233 kPa; P = 0.01), 2nd metatarsal head (266 kPa vs. 236 kPa; P = 0.03), 3rd metatarsal head (254 kPa vs. 223 kPa; P = 0.04), and the 5th metatarsal head (168 kPa vs. 133 kPa; P = 0.04). There was no significant difference in the contact area between the two race groups. The PTI was statistically significantly higher in Caucasians in the region of the 1st metatarsal head (79 kPa s vs. 62 kPa s; P = 0.03) and 5th metatarsal head (58 kPa s vs. 44 kPa s; P = 0.03). There were no significant differences among CT, FTI, IPP, MaxF and MeanF among them.ConclusionThe PP under the heel, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th metatarsal heads and the PTI under the 1st and 5th metatarsal heads in Caucasians is higher than in Indians. There is no difference in the CA.