• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.487-494
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of metatarsal pad (MP) compared with barefoot and MP with using different insoles on gait. 15 healthy females who had no history of injury in the lower extremity with an average age of 22.7 year(SD=1.35), height of 160 cm(SD=3.4), weight of 48.8 kg(SD=5.52) and average foot size of 232.5 mm(SD=6.8) participated in this study as the subjects. The subjects walked on a treadmill under four different experimental conditions: 1) walking with barefoot, 2) walking wearing MP 3) walking wearing a soft insole with MP(SIMP), 4) walking wearing a rigid insole with MP(HIMP). During walking, foot pressure data such as force, contacting area, peak pressure, and mean pressure was collected using Pedar-X System(Novel Gmbh, Germany) and EMG activity of lower limb muscles such as tibialis anterior(TA), lateral gastrocnemius(LG), rectus femoris(RF), and musculus biceps femoris(MBF) was gathered using Delsys EMG Work System(Delsys, USA). Collected data was then analyzed using paired t-test in order to investigate the effects of each of experimental conditions. As a result of the analysis, when MP and HIMP were equipped, overall contacting area was increased while the force, peak pressure and the mean pressure were decreased. Especially, when the SIMP was equipped, every data were significantly decreased. In case of EMG, wearing MP, SIMP and HIMP made three muscles(TA, LG, RF)'s activity decrease. A result of the analysis will be able to apply for manufacturing functional shoes, diabetes shoes, senior shoes and lower extremity orthosis. Significance of the study due to a metatarsal pad and the insole is to analyze the changes in muscle strength.