Healthy human feet are essential for supporting body weight. The present study is among the limited research that attempts to assess the multivariate relationship between body composition measures and foot anthropometric variables of the Lodha population, a particularly vulnerable tribal group of Paschim Medinipur district, West Bengal. The present cross-sectional study was conducted on Lodha males (228) and females (215) aged 18 years and above. All variables were obtained by following standard procedures. Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) was performed using SPSS version 26.0. The canonical correlation coefficient between body composition and foot anthropometric variables was .939 and .898 (p ≤ .001) for males and females, which explained 80.23% and 72.85% of the total variance, respectively. Cross-loading values of Canonical Correlation Analysis revealed that among males, height, weight, body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage, and visceral fat level were the most important predictors of all the breadth and girth measurements of the foot. Among females, all body composition measures were highly important predictors of girth measurements of the foot. The findings of the present study will aid in raising awareness concerning foot health and contribute new knowledge to public health.
Bhattacharjee et al. (Wed,) studied this question.