Evaluation of longitudinal arch of foot medial part height in relation to proprioception

The foot muscles, ligaments and arches provide the dynamic structure of the foot. The longitudinal arch of foot medial part (LAFMP) is the highest among the arches of the foot, analyzed in 3 sections. Proprioception provides movement control, spatial body awareness and the position perception of body parts relative to each other by processing the information received by the muscle spindle and golgi tendon organ through conscious and subconscious pathways. This study was conducted to evaluate the relationship between LAFMP height and proprioception. The study included 61 participants and measurements were performed on 122 feet, 95 with normal arch and 27 with low arch. A questionnaire was administered for sociodemographic information and foot preference. Arch height was evaluated with 2 different parameters and proprioception ability was evaluated with 4 different angles in weight transfer and non-weight transfer positions. When proprioception acuity was compared, a significant difference was found between normal and low arch groups at 20° plantar flexion (PF) angle on the dominant side in the weight-bearing position. When the relationship between arch height and proprioception acuity was examined, a negative low-level relationship was found at a 20° PF angle in the weight-bearing position and 10° PF angle in the non-weight-bearing position on the dominant side. No significant correlation was found between arch height and proprioception acuity on the recessive side. In our study, a significant correlation was found between arch height and proprioception on the dominant side, especially in the weight-bearing position. There is no significant correlation on the recessive side. In the literature review, no primary study has been found primarily examined the relationship between arch height and proprioception. In addition, few studies have examined the correlation of LAFMP height with proprioception. In our opinion the results obtained provide important contributions to the literatüre and our study have a promising impact on this field.