Background Curved rocker shoes are designed with a contoured outsole which can be characteristics by three principle design features: rocker angle, apex angle and apex position. Although these shoes are routinely prescribed to reduce in-shoe pressure in patients with diabetes, there is only minimal scientific evidence to inform the choice of value for each of the three design features. Results ...

The purpose of this study was to investigate how different footwear (highly cushioned, standard, minimalist shoes) affect peak ground reaction forces, average loading rates and joint kinematics during running. Nine participants ran at a self-selected speed across all shod conditions, minimalist, highly cushioned and standard running shoe. Vicon Nexus was used to analyze joint kinematics of the ...

Common barefoot running shoes or minimal footwear have one or several of the following properties/deficiencies, depending on the type and brand and personal taste: Coverage of a considerable fraction of the foot’s surface with textile/plastic leading to sub-optimal foot climate Considerable weight for a true “barefoot shoe” Toe pockets that do not fit with nonstandard feet Considerable size and...

Relative attribute models can compare images in terms of all detected properties or attributes, exhaustively predicting which image is fancier, more colorful, more natural, and so on without any regard to ordering. However, when humans are asked to compare images, certain attribute differences will naturally stick out and come to mind first. These most noticeable differences, or prominent diffe...

BACKGROUND Foot problems are prevalent in older women and are thought to be associated with footwear. This study examined women's shoe wearing patterns over time and evaluated associations between footwear characteristics and foot pain and hallux valgus. METHODS Women aged 50-89 years (n = 2,627) completed a survey that included drawings of four toe-box shapes and four heel heights. For each ...

INTRODUCTION Analysis of in-shoe pressure distribution during sport-specific movements may provide a clue to improve shoe design and prevent injuries. This study compared the mean and the peak pressures over the whole foot and ten separate areas of the foot, wearing different shoes during specific movements. METHODS Nine male adult recreational futsal players performed three trials of three s...

The capacity to store and return energy in legs and feet that behave like springs is crucial to human running economy. Recent comparisons of shod and barefoot running have led to suggestions that modern running shoes may actually impede leg and foot-spring function by reducing the contributions from the leg and foot musculature. Here we examined the effect of running shoes on foot longitudinal ...

BACKGROUND There is limited evidence on non-pharmacological interventions for gout. The aim of the study was to determine whether a footwear intervention can reduce foot pain and musculoskeletal disability in people with gout. METHODS Thirty-six people with gout participated in a prospective intervention study over 8 weeks. Participants selected one of 4 pairs of shoes and thereafter wore the...

The ability to intuit another person’s thoughts, feelings, and inner mental states is surely among the most impressive of human mental faculties. Adopting another’s perspective requires the ability to represent the self as distinct from others, the development of a theory of mind to realize that others have mental states in the first place (see also Saxe, Chapter 17, this volume) and the explic...