Context: Arch tapings have been used by athletic trainers to support the arch in patients with increased pronation and/or increased navicular drop. The arch taping assists in increasing the navicular height, decreasing the amount of navicular drop, and altering foot biomechanics of an individual during weight bearing activity. Several studies have observed the initial effects of taping interventions, but few have researched clinically relevant effectiveness in these taping interventions. Objective: The objective of this study is three-fold: 1. Determine the presence of known modifiable risk factors in an active adult population; 2. Determine the immediate effectiveness of a longitudinal tear-drop arch tape on navicular drop, plantar flexion, dorsiflexion, and center of pressure; 3. Determine the effectiveness of the longitudinal tear-drop arch taping during a treadmill performance test. Design: Quasi-Experiment. Setting: Athletic Training research laboratory. Patients or Other Participants: Fifty-nine participants were involved in the study with thirty-five young active adults having a navicular drop of more than 8mm. Interventions: All individuals who met inclusion criteria received longitudinal tear-drop arch tape. Navicular height, plantar flexion, dorsiflexion, and center of pressure was measured at multiple intervals: baseline, post-tape, and in 5 minute intervals until failure or to a max of 30 minutes. Main outcome measure(s): The dependent variables were navicular height in millimeters, ankle range of motion in degrees, and center of pressure deviation. Center of pressure deviations were divided into 4 sections and analyzed for differences between time points. Results: There was a significant difference in dorsiflexion between navicular drop <10mm and navicular drop >10mm on the right side. No significant difference was found with plantar flexion range of motion. Navicular drop was significantly reduced immediately following intervention application. Differences were observed from no intervention to intervention application in both plantar flexion. Average duration of effectiveness was 12.29 minutes. Significant differences in navicular drop remained for 25 minutes and plantar flexion for 5 minutes. Conclusions: Longitudinal tear-drop arch taping intervention effectively changed navicular drop, plantar flexion range of motion, and dorsiflexion range of motion, but these changes did not last the entire 30 minute duration of the exercise. The inability of the longitudinal tear-drop arch taping to perform beyond 30 minutes leads one to reconsider its use during clinical application. This intervention may be useful for short duration tasks such as sprints and rehabilitation exercises as there was an initial change in risk factors, but long term use is not proven to be effective.
