Abstract:
Many women enjoy wearing high heels despite knowing the can harm their feet. Many uncomfortable conditions can originate from wearing this shoe, leading to biomechanicalchanges in ankle joints. Hence, the study is aimed to identify the effects of massage therapy in
improving muscular flexibility among women wearing high heels.MethodologyForty female participants with chronic heel pain were included in the single-blinded randomizedcontrolled trial. Participants were divided into Group-A (Stretching and deep heat) and Group-B
(petrissage and deep heat). The treatment was performed for 4-weeks, 3 sessions/week in bothgroups. Foot function index and ankle dorsiflexion were recorded at baseline and after 4-weeksof intervention.ResultsForty female participants with a mean age of 28.23±6.24 were recruited. Both groups showedsignificant improvement in all three variables, i.e. pain, disability, and ankle dorsiflexion.
However, Group-B showed more significant results with mean differences of 1.80±2.22 and4.1±6.7 (p<0.05) for pain and disability, respectively. A similar result was observed for ankledorsiflexion in which a mean difference of 0.95±1.08 in the left and 1.25±1.12 in the right ankle
was observed.
Conclusion
Both treatment programs are highly effective in reducing pain, reducing disability, and
improving ankle joint ROM. However, petrissage massage and deep heating were superior
compared to superficial heat with static stretching for females with chronic heel pain.
Keywords:
pain
,
Disability
,
Massage
,
range of Motion
,
Ankle joint