Onur Akman¹, Grgur Višić², Matej Babić^2,3, Goran Sporiš², Dražen Čular⁴, Davorin Antonic², Zvonimir Tomac⁴, Ivica Franjo⁴, Robert Bobinec³, Damir Jurko³, Mario Kasović², Danijela Kuna⁴, Damir Labaš², Fredi Florentini³, Valentin Barišić², Drena Trkulja-Petković², Ferhat Güder⁵, Besnik Morina⁵, Mutlu Türkmen⁵, Zoran Milić⁶, Ahmet Naci Dilek⁷, Goran Špaleta², Nijaz Skender⁸, Ekrem Çolakhodzic⁹, Ernest Sabić⁸, Maki Grle¹⁰, Vladan Pelemiš¹¹, Vladimir Z. Momčilović¹², Marko Zigman², György Ferenc¹³, Tihomir Dugandžić¹⁴, Tamás Marczinka¹⁵, Adem Preljević¹⁶, Vedran Režić¹⁷, Dejan Savićević¹⁸, Nikola Rudalo¹⁹, Goran Vučković²⁰, Marko Pocrnjić²⁰, Tomáš Vespačele²¹, Marta Gimunova²¹, Buket Šeran²², Lepeš Josip²³, Halasi Szabolcs²³, Biljana Trajkovski²⁴

¹Sports Science Faculty, Bayburt University, Bayburt, Turkey
²Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Zagreb, Department of General and Applied Kinesiology, Zagreb, Croatia
³Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Split, Split, Croatia
⁴Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia
⁵Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, University of Prishtina "Hasan Prishtina", Republic of Kosovo
⁶Educons University, Faculty of Education, Sremska Kamenica, Republic of Serbia
⁷Bartın University, Faculty of Sport Science, Bartın, Turkey
⁸University of Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina
⁹Faculty of Education, Džemal Bijedić University of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
¹⁰Orthopedic Clinical Department, University Clinical Hospital in Mostar, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
¹¹Faculty of Education, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Republic of Serbia
¹²Pedagogical Faculty in Vranje, University of Niš, Niš, Republic of Serbia
¹³Research Institute, Gál Ferenc University, Szeged, Hungary
¹⁴Faculty of Medicine, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
¹⁵University of Physical Education, Budapest, Hungary
¹⁶State University of Novi Pazar, Novi Pazar, Serbia
¹⁷Croatian Squash Federation, Zagreb, Croatia
¹⁸Preschool Teacher Training and Business Informatics College of Applied Studies Sirmium, Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia
¹⁹Faculty of sport and physical education, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
²⁰Faculty of Sport, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
²¹Department of Physical Activities and Health Sciences, Faculty of Sports Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
²²Faculty of Sport Sciences, University in Atatürk, Yakutye, Turkiye
²³Hungarian Language Teacher Training Faculty, University of Novi Sad, Subotica, Serbia
²⁴Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia

Applications of Pedobarographic Analysis in Children - A Systematic Review

J. Anthr. Sport Phys. Educ. 2025, 9(1), 13-25 | DOI: 10.26773/jaspe.250103

Abstract

Healthy plantar pressure distribution beneath the feet plays a crucial role in children’s development from the very beginning, with any deviations potentially leading to various pathologic conditions. This review aims to examine recent applications of pedobarographic analysis in pediatrics applications, providing a clearer picture of current research practices and the topics being addressed. The authors conducted a comprehensive search across several scientific databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar, ultimately selecting 17 studies after applying specific criteria for inclusion. The findings demonstrate that pedobarographic analysis can effectively differentiate between age and sex differences in plantar pressure and detect the influence of various risk factors in healthy children. It was found that a child’s foot health is closely linked to their physical activity level, with body fat percentage playing a significant role in pressure distribution. Furthermore, external factors like school bags and internal factors such as obesity were identified as major contributors to abnormal plantar pressure, and pedobarography proved successful in detecting these effects. The analysis also showed that pedobarography is an effective tool for assessing foot health, tracking changes, and monitoring longterm recovery or trends in children. However, the review also highlights a limitation in the scarcity of research, particularly in the areas of gait and plantar pressure in children. Only a few studies have focused on young healthy athletes, suggesting that future research could delve deeper into this population.

Keywords

pedobarography; gait analysis; children; gait; plantar pressure

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