Endocrine Abstracts

Plantar heel pain (PHP) is one of the most common musculoskeletal disorders of the foot, yet its etiology is poorly understood. Although obesity is the most common cause of PHP, there is little information available about the prevalence and associated factors in obese patient with PHP. The aim was to determine prevalence of various co-morbidities in obese patients with PHP and assess associations. A hundred and fourthy nine obese and overweight participants (29 males, 120 females and mean age 44 years) were matched by with and without PHP (34 with PHP and 115 without PHP). The two groups were then compared on various fatness, hormone and blood parameters. Diabetes mellitus (DM), coronary heart disease (CHD), chronic obstructive lung disease (COLD), asthma, smoking, varice, hemorrhoid, lumbago, constipation, osteoporosis, hormone replacement therapy (HRT), goiter, reflux were compared between the groups. Statistical analysis demonstrated that significantly greater increase in PHP prevalence with COLD (P<0.001), hemorrhoid (P<0.01), lumbago (P<0.001), constipation (P<0.01), reflux (P<0.05) prevalence but decreased prevalence of PHP with asthma (P<0.05) and varice (P<0.01) in patients. No statistically significant difference was identified between the PHP (+) and (−) groups for DM, CHD, smoking, osteoporosis, HRT and goiter in this study. This study showed that PHP is closely associated with obesity and the most important factor is duration of the obesity. The combination of obesity with different co-morbidities like as COLD, hemorrhoid, lumbago, constipation and reflux may be risk factors for PHP, but combination obesity with asthma or varice do not appear to play a role in PHP in this study.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector.