Effect of Kinesio Taping on lower limb muscle activation patterns during walking in children: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Introduction/Background: Kinesio Tape (KT) claims to have the effect of facilitating muscle activations. Immature gait pattern and neuromuscular control in children might be facilitated by KT but no study has proven it so far. This randomized controlled study aimed to investigate the effects of KT on leg muscle activations in children during treadmill walking. Material and Method: A total of 48 children participated in the study. Twenty-five of them were randomized to the KT group (mean age ± SD = 7.86 ± 0.78 years; 16 males and 9 females) and 23 to the control group (mean age ± SD = 8.29 ± 1.25 years; 13 males and 10 females). KT was applied with moderate tension (50%) to the gastrocnemius and quadriceps muscles for the KT group. The control group did not receive any KT. Rectus femoris, biceps femoris, tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius medialis peak muscle activations (dominant leg) were measured by surface electromyography, an electrogoniometer attached to the knee joint and foot contact switches before and after the application of KT. Results: Two-way repeated measures analysis of covariance (covariate: body mass index) revealed a significant group-by-time interaction effect in the peak muscle activation of biceps femoris (p=0.005) and gastrocnemius medialis (p<0.001) during the mid-stance phase of gait. Post hoc analyses indicated that biceps femoris and gastrocnemius medialis muscle peak activations in the KT group had 51.64% (p=0.025) and 122.18% (p<0.001) increments, respectively, when compared to the baseline values. When compared with the control group, the KT group exhibited higher peak activations for biceps femoris (94.26%, p=0.013) and gastrocnemius medialis (140.52%, p<0.001) at post-test. Conclusion: The application of KT improved peak muscle activations in the leg during walking in growing children. Therefore, KT may be useful to speed up the maturation of gait and neuromuscular control in the legs among children.