Background A well-fitted shoe is singularly the most consistent footwear attribute recommended in children’s footwear guidelines to promote foot health. Despite recommendations research over the last 70 years continues to report the majority of children wear inappropriately sized shoes. It would be beneficial for the development of consumer appropriate guidelines to know what influences parents...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether shoe-wearing affords foot protection among school children living in southern Ethiopia. METHODS Data collectors conducted a standardized foot assessment with children in an elementary school in southern Ethiopia (N=168). RESULTS 54% reported wearing shoes consistently in the prior three days. Children wearing closed-toed shoes showed less adherent soil and toe ...

2 ABSTRACT The overuse injuries commonly experienced by runners can be attributed to a number of risk factors. The primary risk factor is repetitive impact loading of the lower extremity, but anatomical predispositions, excessive subtalar joint pronation, running surfaces, shoes and training habits all contribute to the probability of injury. Running shoes are rarely the sole cause of an injury...

Dancing en pointe requires the ballerina to stand on her toes, which are protected only by the pointe shoe toe box. This protection diminishes when the toe box loses its structural integrity. The objectives of this study were 1) to quantify the comparative structural static and fatigue properties of the pointe shoe toe box, and 2) to evaluate the preferred shoe characteristics as determined by ...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of unstable shoes in reducing low back pain in health professionals. METHODS Of a volunteer sample of 144 participants, 40 with nonspecific chronic low back pain were eligible and enrolled in this study. Participants were randomized to an intervention group, who wore unstable shoes (model MBT Fora), or a control group, who wore...

Falls are unpredictable accidents and resulting injuries can be serious to the elderly. A preventative solution can be the use of vibration stimulus of white noise to improve the sense of balance. In this work, a pair of vibration shoes were developed and controlled by a touch-type switch which can generate mechanical vibration noise to stimulate the patient’s feet while wearing the shoes. In o...

It is unclear whether military shoes (combat boots and sports shoes) attenuate loading rate or affect force transfer during walking. Therefore, this study compared ground reaction forces (GRF) related to impact between combat boots, shoes, running shoes. Ten army recruits walked over a walkway with two plates embedded. GRF were measured when walking barefoot (for data normalisation) Loading rat...