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The Incidence Of Pes Planus Amongst Akwa Ibom State Students In The University Of Calabar

2009; Volume: 3; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5580/899

1540-2622

Orthopedic Surgery and Rehabilitation

The prevalence of pes planus was determined among the people of Akwa Ibom State of Southern Nigeria. From the University of Calabar Community, a total of 1000 students comprising of 500 males and 500 females of Akwa Ibom State origin and aged 20-30 years were used for the study. All volunteers had no deformities or previous fractures of the lower extremities especially of the foot. The dynamic footprints of the students were obtained using endorsing ink and plain duplicating paper. The contact index II was determined as the ratio of the contact width to the total width of the foot print. Descriptive statistics for each variable included mean and standard deviation (SD). Mean±1-2SD was regarded as normal but greater than this was considered abnormal (flat foot). A total of 67 individuals had flat foot comprising of 29 males and 38 females. The overall prevalence of pes planus was 13.4% with a prevalence of 5.8% among males and 7.6% among females. Bilateral flat foot was commoner among females (6.2%) than males (5.0%). Unilateral flat foot was also commoner among females (1.4%) compared to males (0.8%). Our results showed that the prevalence of pes planus was higher among females than males in Akwa Ibom state of Nigeria.