Background: The research objective of the study is to determine the differences in the manifestation of the motor status of normally fed preschool test subjects, classified into groups according to foot status.
Methods: This is a simple, comparative observational study. Preschool children included in this study have been subjected to anthropometric measurements in order to determine BMI, tests for motor skills assessment (running at 20 m from a high start, standing broad jump, backwards polygon, rectangular seated forward bend, plate tapping, sit-ups for 60 s, and bent arm hang), and a determination of foot status. The total sample was comprised of 202 test subjects who attended a regular sports program, aged 3.9 to 6.5 years of decimal age (M = 141; Age = 5.3 ± 0.74; Height = 117.3 ± 7.1; Weight = 22 ± 3.7; F = 61; Age = 5.1 ± 0.73; Height = 114.9 ± 7.4; Weight = 21.2 ± 3.8), of which 153 (75.7%) were normally fed, 6 (3%) were undernourished, 30 were overweight (14.9%), and 13 were obese (6.4%).
Results: In the total sample, 30 (14.9%) subjects had normal arch feet, 90 (44.6%) high arched feet, and 41 (20.3%) flat feet. We found 41 (20.3%) subjects who had different left and right foot statuses within this sample. The data were processed by means of nonparametric tests (the Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests) at a significance level p ≤ 0.05.
Conclusion: The results show that there is a statistically significant difference between groups of subjects with different foot statuses in the manifestation of motor status in most tests, with a significance level of p ≤ 0.01, and in tests of sit-ups for 60 s and the bent arm hang, there is a statistically significant difference, the level of which is p ≤ 0.05. It is only in the inclination test of rectangular seated forward bend that no statistically significant difference was displayed.
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