Energy cost of walking with flat feet.

A comparative study has been conducted to assess the effects of arch support on oxygen consumption in 20 subjects with flat feet who were generally complaining about fatigue, and also to explore whether their feeling of weariness was objective or not. The resting, walking and final recovery heart rates, blood pressures, and walking oxygen consumption values of the patients with flat feet were measured and calculated and compared to a control group using treadmill and oxygen consumption devices. In stage one the patients did not wear any arch support. Then suitable arch supports were prepared for each patient and in stage two they wore these arch supports. The results did not show any significant difference between the resting heart rates, blood pressure and oxygen consumptions. However, differences in walking heart rate, systolic blood pressure, final recovery heart rate, oxygen consumption, and energy cost values were found to be significant between stage one and two of the test in the patient group. The difference in walking diastolic blood pressure values without and with arch support were found to be insignificant. It may therefore be deduced that oxygen consumption during walking is decreased when a suitable arch support is applied to patients with flat feet.