J-Stroke Myofascial Release Offers Greater Pain Relief than Foam Rolling in Patients with Plantar Fasciopathy: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Background. In plantar fascia and nearby muscles, trigger points can reduce the pain threshold, causing increased sensitivity and discomfort in individuals with plantar fasciitis that lies superficial to plantar muscles of foot usually causes pain in inferior medial region of calcaneus during first few steps in the morning. Objective. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of foam roller and J-stroke myofascial release on pain intensity, pain threshold, range of motion and functional disability in patients with plantar fasciitis. Methods. A total of 44 patients with plantar fasciitis were randomly allocated into two of the intervention groups, a Foam roller (n = 22) and J-Stroke myofascial release (n = 22) through computer-generated random number table. Outcomes were assessed through visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain intensity, pressure algometry for pressure pain threshold (PPT), weight bearing lunge test (WBLT) for dorsiflexion ROM at ankle joint and Urdu version of Foot and Ankle Disability index (FADI-U) for functional disability at the beginning of the session (baseline first session) and 4 weeks after completing the treatment sessions. The parametric test was used as data was found normally distributed by Shapiro-Wilk test. The independent t-test is used for intragroup analysis and paired t-test was used for intergroup analysis. Results. The independent t-test for between the group analysis was not significant (p > 0.05) for post VAS and post PPT (Plantar fasciitis) whereas post WBLT, PPT (Gastrocnemius and soleus) and post FADI were significant (p < 0.05). The paired t-test value within the group analysis for both groups were found statistically significant (p < 0.05) for all outcome measures except for group FR (Foam roller) in WBLT was not significant (p > 0.05). Conclusions. This study concluded that J-stroke myofascial release intervention provided clinically relevant results and was found statistically significant as the effect size was large and high mean difference was reported in comparison to foam roller intervention for all the outcome measures in reducing pain intensity, pain pressure threshold, disability and range of motion. Study registration. The clinical trial was prospectively registered in the WHO-Iranian registry of clinical trials (Trial registration number: IRCT20190717044238N9, trial registration date: 09/11/2023).