Open AccessReliability of the TekScan MatScan ® system for the measurement of plantar forces and pressures during barefoot level walking in healthy adults
Author(s) -
Zammit Gerard V,
Menz Hylton B,
Munteanu Shan E
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of foot and ankle research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.763
H-Index - 39
ISSN - 1757-1146
DOI - 10.1186/1757-1146-3-11
Subject(s) - barefoot , medicine , plantar pressure , heel , reliability (semiconductor) , physical medicine and rehabilitation , orthodontics , physical therapy , foot (prosody) , anatomy , pressure sensor , quantum mechanics , thermodynamics , power (physics) , linguistics , physics , philosophy
Background Plantar pressure systems are increasingly being used to evaluate foot function in both research settings and in clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability of the TekScan MatScan ® system in assessing plantar forces and pressures during barefoot level walking. Methods Thirty participants were assessed for the reliability of measurements taken one week apart for the variables maximum force, peak pressure and average pressure. The following seven regions of the foot were investigated; heel, midfoot, 3 rd ‐5 th metatarsophalangeal joint, 2 nd metatarsophalangeal joint, 1 st metatarsophalangeal joint, hallux and the lesser toes. Results Reliability was assessed using both the mean and the median values of three repeated trials. The system displayed moderate to good reliability of mean and median calculations for the three analysed variables across all seven regions, as indicated by intra‐class correlation coefficients ranging from 0.44 to 0.95 for the mean and 0.54 to 0.97 for the median, and coefficients of variation ranging from 5 to 20% for the mean and 3 to 23% for the median. Selecting the median value of three repeated trials yielded slightly more reliable results than the mean. Conclusions These findings indicate that the TekScan MatScan ® system demonstrates generally moderate to good reliability.