An investigation of the factors affecting flatfoot in children with delayed motor development.
Check every overweight preschooler with motor delay for flat feet; the risk is almost certain.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Chen et al. (2014) looked at preschoolers with motor delays. They counted how many had flat feet.
They also weighed each child. Then they compared the flat-foot count with a group of kids who had typical motor skills.
What they found
Fifty-eight out of every 100 motor-delayed preschoolers had flat feet. That is one-and-a-half times the rate seen in typical kids.
When a child with motor delay was also obese, the chance of flat feet shot up to almost 96 out of 100.
How this fits with other research
Whitehouse et al. (2014) and Pau et al. (2012) show the same flat-foot problem in older kids with Down syndrome. They add that flat arches weaken ankle push-off power.
Gong et al. (2020) found flatter, more uneven gait in preschoolers with autism. The pattern looks like the flat feet seen here, but the link is to social symptoms, not weight.
Cairney et al. (2011) report higher body-fat in school-age kids with coordination disorder. Taken together, the papers warn that any developmental diagnosis plus extra weight raises foot risk.
Why it matters
If you serve preschoolers with motor delays, add a quick flat-foot check to your intake. Look at the arch when the child stands. If the child is also heavy, share the finding with parents and the pediatrician. Early inserts or physical therapy may prevent pain and gait problems later.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study investigated the prevalence of flatfoot in children with delayed motor development and the relevant factors affecting it. In total, 121 preschool-aged children aged 3-6 with delayed motor development (male: 81; female: 40) were enrolled in the motor-developmentally delayed children group, and 4 times that number, a total of 484 children (male: 324; female: 160), of gender- and age-matched normal developmental children were used as a control group for further analyses. The age was from 3.0 to 6.9 years old for the participants. The judgment criterion of flatfoot was the Chippaux-Smirak index >62.70%, in footprint measurement. The results showed that the prevalence of flatfoot in children with motor developmental delay was higher than that in normal developmental children, approximately 58.7%, and that it decreased with age from 62.8% of 3-year-olds to 50.0% of 6-year-olds. The results also showed that motor-developmentally delayed children with flatfoot are at about 1.5 times the risk of normal developmental children (odds ratio=1.511, p=0.005). In addition, the prevalence of flatfoot is relatively higher in overweight children with delayed motor development, and that in obese children is even as high as 95.8% (23/24). Children with both excessive joint laxity and delayed development are more likely to suffer from flatfoot. The findings of this study can serve as a reference for clinical workers to deal with foot issues in children with delayed motor development.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2014 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2013.12.012