A study on effect of strain-counterstrain in plantar fasciitis

Abstract

Background: Bipedal locomotion is a unique feature of human beings and has the advantage of upright mobility. Hence, foot becomes the most important weight loading structure and gets the maximum pressure per unit area. Plantar fasciitis is a painful inflammatory process of the plantar fascia, the connective tissue on the sole of the foot. Thus a study was conducted to determine the effect of strain-counterstrain in plantar fasciitis.Methods: 30 individuals aged between 18-35 years both male and female with plantar fasciitis were recruited for the study. The patients were treated for a period of 7 days using the technique of strain-counterstrain. Pre-intervention and post-intervention scores of Plantar Fasciitis Pain and Disability scale were assessed and were analysed using unpaired t-test and repeated ANOVA.Results: There was equal distribution of occurrence of plantar fasciitis among both the genders out of the population of study. A significant difference was noted between the pre and post interventional measure of a type of manual therapy called strain-counterstrain (p<0.0001). The difference between pre intervention and after third day intervention did not show much of a difference. However after fifth day a considerable difference was noted (p <0.0001). It was noted that limited dorsiflexion improved after one week of interventional measure of strain-counterstrain (p <0.0001).Conclusions: The technique of strain-counterstrain which is a type of manual therapy is effective in patients affected by plantar fasciitis. It also showed an improvement in the limited ankle dorsiflexion range.