| Summary: | 碩士 === 大同工學院 === 工業設計研究所 === 87 === With the advancement of pregnancy, posture changes in pregnant women are the most obvious characteristic. Such changes make a great variation in the gait among pregnant women. And easily cause some pains in the foot. So the foot size and plantar pressure of pregnant women are studied.
Subjects are divided into two groups. One is continuity group (5 persons), and the other is non-continuity group (3 periods, each period contains 20 persons). Foot measure tools are used to measure the foot size and Emed-Pedar to measure the static and dynamic plantar pressure. The results show as follows: There are significant increases in the foot length, short heel girth, ankle girth, and arch height during pregnancy. The foot length increases slowly. A significant difference occurs in the third period of pregnancy, but the increased length is no more than 15mm. The short heel girth increases significantly in the second period of pregnancy. The ankle girth significant increases by dropsy in the third period of pregnancy. Additionally, the weight increases and joint laxity. So, the arch height decreases when the second period of pregnancy begins. The average height in each of the three periods are 35.2mm, 18.4mm, and 18mm.
With the advancement of pregnancy, the static plantar pressure keeps increasing. The increase is especially significant in the heel in the third period of pregnancy, meaning that the posture changes subject the heel to sustain most of the weight and could easily cause heel ache. In the same way, the dynamic plantar pressure keeps increasing along with the process of pregnancy. It is most obvious in the heel, second metatarsus, other metatarsus, and hallux. These plantar pressures increase with the beginning of the third period of pregnancy, especially in the second metatarsus. This phenomenon shows that the gait force line moves toward the other metatarsus as the pregnancy advance.
This study provides a description of clinical phenomenon of pregnant women. The result of the investigation may prove beneficial in their attempts to adjust their gait as well as in their choice of shoes and helpful for the designer in their design of shoes intended for pregnant women.
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