The Effect of Flooring Characteristics on Plantar Pressures on the Foot during Standing

Many studies have found that “anti-fatigue” mats reduce discomfort during prolonged standing but it is unclear why mats are successful. This has made the design and selection of effective mats difficult. An abundance of physiological evidence suggests that pressure on the foot may be a source of standing discomfort, but no research has examined pressure differences between flooring as a possible explanation for the effectiveness of mats. This experiment will measure the effect of flooring on pressures on the foot for different stance and footwear conditions. Pilot data suggest that standing barefoot, standing on a harder surface while barefoot, standing with body weight near the rear of the foot, and standing with more weight on one foot increases peak pressure. A single foot stance also results in a migration of body weight toward the rear of the foot. A larger sample size will establish whether flooring affects pressures in the shod condition, which will have an impact on future research into the relation between flooring characteristics and mechanisms for discomfort.