Sensitivity and specificity of normalized truncated navicular height in assessment of static foot posture in children aged 6-12 years.
Emad A Aboelnasr, Hoda A El-Talawy, Faten H Abdelazim and 1 others
PMID 31156314WHAT IT FOUND
In healthy children aged 6 to 12, static NTNH <= 0.19 matched the radiographic result for 88.1% of flat arches and 99.5% of normal arches.
Key findings
01NTNH showed high intra-rater reliability, with ICC 0.98 (95%CI 0.97-0.99), and a change of at least 0.014 is needed to reflect real change.
02Against radiographic T1MA as the gold standard, NTNH had sensitivity 88.1%, specificity 99.5%, and ROC AUC 0.98 (95%CI 0.97-0.99).
03The optimal cutoff for flat arched foot in children aged 6-12 years was NTNH <= 0.19.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
Only children aged 6-12 years with normal BMI from ten schools in Cairo were studied, so the results may not apply to children outside this age range, children with abnormal BMI, or other populations. Inter-rater reliability, predictive values, and likelihood ratios were not investigated, so the accuracy for another examiner is unknown. Only the right foot was analyzed, and children with foot or ankle pain, neuromuscular disorders, structural lower limb deformities, abnormal gait, or other listed exclusions were not included. The study assessed static foot posture against a radiographic angle, so the result depends on that imaging reference standard.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflict of interest and no funding for the study.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read NTNH <= 0.19 as evidence that a child needs treatment. The paper tested static foot posture against a radiographic angle in asymptomatic children, not treatment response.