Correlation Of Foot Dysfunctions And Body Mass Index In Pregnancy

Abstract

Background: As women gets pregnant, many changes take place in her body like physiological changes, hormonal changes leading to increase in joint laxity, experiences increase in weight gain which leads to many of the musculoskeletal disorders. Pregnant women experience many musculoskeletal problems which are common like lower back pain, leg pain, foot pain etc. Among all of the musculoskeletal dysfunctions, foot of pregnant women has many problems and which is not known to the people. As we all know that, various foot dysfunctions like calf muscle cramps, foot pain, swelling around ankles, heel pain on standing occur most commonly during second and third trimester of pregnancy. There is lack of knowledge seen whether there is any correlation seen among foot dysfunctions and body mass index during the pregnancy. Purpose: This study was done to check whether these incidences of various foot dysfunctions with increase in the body mass index of the pregnant women are correlated. Aim: To identify the correlation of foot dysfunctions and increase in body mass index during pregnancy. Methods: In this study, 160 participants between 20-35 years were selected for this study. According to the inclusion criteria, women who were pregnant for the first time were included in this study whereas pregnant women with complications such as polyhydraminos, fibroid complicating pregnancy were excluded in this study. Participants were given written as well as verbal informed consent. They were divided into group of four according to World Health organization of the body mass index categories. Statistics: Pearson’s correlation of Instat software was used to calculate statistics. Results: According to the data, it could be seen that extremely strong relation seen between pain and obese women (p = 0.0008) whereas no significant relation was found in underweight (p = 0.1501) and normal (p = 0.1420) women. Also very significant correlation was found between disability and women who was obese (p = 0.0084) whereas, no relation was found in women who were underweight, normal and overweight (p = 0.3390, 0.1919, 0.1513). Women’s with normal body mass index found extremely significant relation (p = 0.0001) with activity limitation, whereas, significant relation with underweight, obese and overweight (p = 0.0413, 0.0010, 0.0114) pregnant women. Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) also showed significant correlation with all of the pregnant women. And overall total score of Foot Function Index (FFI) found extremely significant relation with women who were overweight (p = <0.0001). Conclusions: This study concludes that there is strong correlation between the foot dysfunction and body mass index in pregnant women who are overweight. As the weight gain increases during pregnancy there is more incidence of foot dysfunctions and which affects the ability of the women to do the daily activities. By seeing this correlation, proper preventive plans must be executed.