Short-term effects of sports taping on navicular height, navicular drop and peak plantar pressure in healthy elite athletes A within-subject comparison

• Published in: Medicine (Baltimore) Vol. 96; no. 46; p. e8714
• Main Authors: Kim, Taegyu, Park, Jong-Chul
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Wolters Kluwer Health 01.11.2017
• Subjects: Athletic Tape; Biomechanical Phenomena; Female; Foot - physiology; Humans; Jogging - physiology; Male; Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome - etiology; Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome - prevention & control; Observational Study; Posture - physiology; Pressure; Time Factors; Walking - physiology; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0025-7974; 1536-5964; 1536-5964
• DOI: 10.1097/MD.0000000000008714

Medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS) is one of the most common exercise-induced leg pain. The navicular drop (ND) was identified as a risk factor for MTSS. This study aimed to evaluate the short-term effects of sports taping applied to the supporting lower leg during sitting, standing, walking, and jogging to restrict the ND in healthy elite athletes.Twenty-four healthy elite athletes without a history of exercise-induced pain or injuries in the lower limbs participated in this study (median age: 21.00 years; 1st--3rd quartiles; 19.25-22.00). The 4 taping conditions were used: rigid taping (RT), kinesiology taping (KT), placebo taping (PT), and non-taping (NT). The order of taping techniques was randomly assigned. Normalized navicular height (NH), ND, and normalized ND evaluated using 3-dimensional motion analysis, and normalized peak plantar pressure (PP) were compared in 4 taping conditions during sitting, standing, walking, and jogging.During sitting, the normalized NH of RT is higher than that of NT, KT, and PT (χ = 17.30, P = .001), while during jogging, the normalized NH of RT is higher than that of NT and PT (χ = 10.55, P = .014). The normalized peak PP of NT is higher than that of PT (χ = 8.871, P = .031) in the lateral midfoot region.This study showed the RT technique maintained NH during sitting and jogging, and the RT technique could be an effective preventive and treatment strategy for MTSS.