## 3 Results
### Assessment of the Presence of Pain  
The podiatry interview regarding foot pain allowed for a statistical analysis of the percentage of feet affected by specific ailments in the studied groups. The highest percentage regarded pain when loading the forefoot (Table 6). More than half of the feet in group T were affected by increased pain in the forefoot when weight was transferred to this area. The lowest percentage of affected feet was found in the control group. A significant difference in symptoms was found between these groups. There were highly significant differences between groups T and C and between groups T and NT regarding the occurrence of stabbing pain in the foot while walking. Almost half of the examined feet in group T experienced pain. The percentage of feet with heel pain was low and statistical analysis showed no intergroup differences. Pain assessment showed that the percentage of feet with pain when standing, as well as during the transfer of body weight to the forefoot, significantly decreased in group T after 1, 2, and 3 procedures (Figure 4). The percentage of feet with pain decreased significantly after each treatment compared to T0 (before treatment). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & & **T** & **C** & **NT** & & **_p_ & \\ \cline{2-7}
**The Presence of Pain** & & & **\%** & & **T vs. C** & **T vs. NT** & **C vs. NT** \\ \hline
**Pain when standing on straight legs (position 1)** & 43 & 30 & 23 & ns & * & ns \\
**Increased pain when loading the forefoot (position 2)** & 61 & 38 & 48 & ** & ns & ns \\
**Stabbing in the forefoot when walking (position 3)** & 46 & 14 & 14 & *** & *** & ns \\
**Pain when loading the hindfoot (position 4)** & 18 & 18 & 16 & ns & ns & ns \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 6: Percentage of feet with pain reported in group T—treatment (N = 76); C—control (N = 80); NT—no treatment (N = 44). * \(p\) \(<\) 0.05; ** \(p\) \(<\) 0.01; *** \(p\) \(<\) 0.001 (Chi\({}^{2}\)). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & & & **EP** & & & **NP** & & & **IP** & \\ \hline  & & **Avg.** & **SD** & \(p\) & **Post hoc** & **Avg.** & **SD** & \(p\) & **Post hoc** & **Avg.** & **SD** & \(p\) & **Post hoc** \\ \hline  & **T0** & 112.3 & 20.0 & ns & 127.2 & 30.1 & & ns & 102.7 & 23.0 & & ns \\
**Total area of the** & **T1** & 118.7 & 18.7 & ns & 123.6 & 38.6 & ns & 104.2 & 21.9 & & ns \\
**load area (cm\({}^{2}\))** & **T2** & 110.4 & 23.9 & ns & 122.1 & 31.0 & ns & 108.9 & 24.9 & & ns \\  & **T3** & 112.1 & 21.0 & & ns & 122.5 & 29.3 & & ns & 108.0 & 23.4 & & ns \\ \hline  & **T0** & 65.3 & 12.6 & & ns & 69.9 & 17.4 & & ns & 52.2 & 14.6 & & ns \\
**Surface loaded** & **T1** & 67.2 & 10.8 & & ns & 69.4 & 19.0 & & ns & 54.0 & 14.0 & & ns \\ front area of the** & **T2** & 63.9 & 14.5 & & ns & 66.4 & 18.0 & & ns & 56.2 & 14.9 & & ns \\
**foot (cm\({}^{2}\))** & **T3** & 63.3 & 12.7 & & ns & 66.4 & 18.6 & & ns & 55.8 & 15.2 & & ns \\ \hline  & **T0** & 56.62 & 6.25 & & ns & 44.97 & 3.32 & & ns & 31.06 & 6.56 & & ns \\
**Load the front area** & **T1** & 53.69 & 6.54 & & ns & 44.24 & 7.03 & & ns & 33.12 & 6.28 & & ns \\
**of the foot (\%)** & **T2** & 53.15 & 10.78 & & ns & 43.34 & 6.60 & & ns & 33.47 & 6.36 & & ns \\
**T3** & 47.77 & 7.21 & & ** & 42.24 & 7.03 & & ns & 33.68 & 7.90 & & ns \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 5: Foot pressure surface parameters in subgroups EP—with excessive pressure; NP—with normal pressure; and IP—with insufficient pressure before (T0) and after 1 (T1), 2 (T2), and 3 (T3) treatment. Avg.—average; SD—standard deviation; _p_—level of significance; ns—not significant; _*_p_ \(<\) 0.05; ** \(p\) \(<\) 0.01 (ANOVA, Dunnett). Assessment of stabbing pain in the forefoot and during loading the hindfoot also showed a significantly lower percentage of feet with stabbing pain when walking compared to the initial condition and a significantly lower percentage of feet with pain in the hindfoot area when transferring the body weight to the heels compared to the initial condition.