The Interrelation of Clarke’s Angle with Body Composition and Lower Extremity Explosive Muscle Strength in School-going Adolescents: A Cross-sectional Study

Adolescence is a distinct period with many important physiological and behavioural changes, including alterations in body composition, changes in fitness attitudes, physical activity, and sedentary behaviour.

The primary purpose of this study was to characterize foot posture in school-aged adolescents aged 11-17 years, and to investigate the relationships between foot posture and body composition and lower extremity muscular explosive strength.

This cross-sectional study involved 150 school-going adolescents (11-17 years) who regularly participated in physical education classes and were assessed for their body composition, degree of flexible pes planus, and performance on the standing long jump test. The Spearman correlation coefficient was used to demonstrate the relationship between the degree of flatfoot and the standing long jump test.

The median Clarke’s angle for the right foot for male and female participants was 42⁰, whereas for the left side, it was measured as a median of 43⁰ and 42⁰ for females and males, respectively. The median standing long jump test distances for males and females were 154.0 and 116.5 centimetres, respectively. A clinically relevant correlation was not observed, as the ρ values were =0.03, R²=0.001 and ρ=0.05, R²=0.001 for the right and left Clarke's angles when associated with standing long jump test distance, and the same test had a weak correlation (ρ=0.145) with body composition.

This study has highlighted that flexible flat feet are not a challenging concern and do not interfere with performance in relation to lower extremity explosive muscle strength.