Implication of obesity on motion, posture and internal stress of the foot: an experimental and finite element analysis

Abstract

Obesity causes increased loading on the foot which can damage the soft tissue and bone ultimately leading to foot problems. Experimental and computational methods were used to analyse the chain of biomechanical changes in the lower limb due to obesity. The experimental study shows some changes in foot posture and gait where obese subjects were more likely to have pronated feet, smaller joint angles in the sagittal and frontal planes, smaller cadence, and smaller stride length. Anatomically correct finite element models generated on obese subjects showed increased and altered internal and plantar stress.  Altered foot posture was identified as a key indicator of increased internal stress indicating the importance of foot posture correction.

Keywords:

• Obesity
• gait analysis
• finite element modelling
• foot biomechanics
• foot posture

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors thank the Senate Research Committee, University of Moratuwa for the funding support given through the grant SRC/CAP/15/01.