The Comparison of Pressure of the Feet in Stance and Gait by the Types of Bags

Abstract

[Purpose] This study attempted to examine the imbalance between the left and right side in standing and during gait among college students according to the way they wore their bags and the weight of the bag. [Subjects] The subjects were forty healthy Korean undergraduate students who were divided into two groups: a shoulder pack group and a backpack group. Five different weights were used for the bags: 0, 2, 5, 10 and 15 kg. [Methods] A Zebris FDM-T Treadmill (Zebris, Germany) was used for measuring plantar foot pressure. The plantar foot pressures in standing and during gait were measured using different bag types and weights. The paired t-test was used to compare plantar foot pressure between the left and right side. [Results] The backpack group did not show a significant difference between the left and right sides in standing and during gait regardless of the bag weight. Meanwhile, the shoulder pack group began to show differing plantar foot pressures between the left and right sides at a bag weight of 5 kg. However, no difference in plantar foot pressure was observed at any bag weight during gait. [Conclusion] The study results show that the plantar foot pressure differs between the left and right sides in standing when wearing shoulder packs heavier than 5 kg, while no such difference was observed during gait. Thus, walking while wearing a shoulder pack heavier than 5 kg is likely to cause musculoskeletal disorder due to the overuse of the muscle on the contralateral side.