Exercise has been demonstrated to improve health in people with diabetes. However, exercise may increase risk for foot ulcers because of increased plantar pressure during most weight-bearing physical activities. To date, there is no study investigating the effect of various walking speeds and durations (i.e., the most common form of exercise in daily living) on the plantar foot. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of various walking intensities on plantar tissue stiffness. A 3 × 2 factorial design, including three walking speeds (1.8, 3.6 and 5.4 mph) and two durations (10 and 20 min), was tested in 12 healthy participants. B-mode and elastographic ultrasound images were measured from the first metatarsal head to quantify plantar tissue stiffness after walking. Two-way ANOVA was used to examine the results. Our results showed that the walking speed factor caused a significant main effect of planar stiffness of the superficial layers (p = 0.007 and 0.003, respectively). However, the walking duration factor did not significantly affect the plantar stiffness. There was no interaction between the speed and duration factors on plantar tissue stiffness. Regarding the walking speed effect, there was a significant difference in the plantar stiffness between 1.8 and 3.6 mph (56.8 ± 0.8% vs. 53.6 ± 0.9%, p = 0.017) under 20 min walking duration. This finding is significant because moderate-to-fast walking speed (3.6 mph) can decrease plantar stiffness compared to slow walking speed (1.8 mph). This study suggests people at risk for foot ulcers walk at a preferred or fast speed (3.6 mph) rather than walk slowly (1.8 mph).

中文翻译：

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在不同速度和持续时间醒来后，使用弹性成像超声评估足底组织的刚度

锻炼已被证明可以改善糖尿病患者的健康。但是，运动可能会增加脚部溃疡的风险，因为在大多数负重体育锻炼过程中，足底压力会升高。迄今为止，还没有研究调查各种步行速度和持续时间（即日常生活中最常见的运动形式）对the足的影响的研究。这项研究的目的是调查各种步行强度对足底组织僵硬的影响。在12名健康参与者中测试了3×2析因设计，包括三种步行速度（1.8、3.6和5.4 mph）和两种持续时间（10和20分钟）。从第一个meta骨头测量B型和弹性成像超声图像，以量化步行后的足底组织刚度。双向方差分析用于检查结果。p分别为0.007和0.003）。然而，步行持续时间的因素并没有显着影响足底的刚度。速度和持续时间因素对足底组织僵硬度没有相互作用。关于步行速度的影响，在步行20分钟的过程中，足底刚度在1.8和3.6 mph之间有显着差异（56.8±0.8％与53.6±0.9％，p = 0.017）。这一发现意义重大，因为与慢速步行速度（1.8英里/小时）相比，中速步行速度（3.6英里/小时）可降低足底刚度。这项研究表明，有脚溃疡危险的人们以较快或较快的速度（3.6英里/小时）行走而不是缓慢地行走（1.8英里/小时）。