Children's school footwear: The impact of fit on foot function, comfort and jump performance in children aged 8 to 12 years

Understanding the Role of Children's Footwear on Children's Feet and Gait Development: A Systematic Scoping Review

Children's footwear plays an important role in the healthy growth of foot and gait development during the growing stage. This review aims to synthesize findings of previous investigations and to explore the biomechanical influences of different types of children's footwear on foot health and gait development, thus guiding the healthy and safe growth of children's feet and gait. Online databases were searched for potential eligible articles, including Web of Science, Google Scholar, and PubMed. In total, nineteen articles were identified after searching based on the inclusion requirements. The following five aspects of biomechanical parameters were identified in the literature, including spatiotemporal, kinematics, kinetics, electromyography (EMG), and plantar pressure distribution. Children's footwear can affect their foot health and gait performance. In addition, children's shoes with different flexibility and sole hardness have different effects on children's feet and gait development. Compared to barefoot, the stride length, step length, stride time, and step time were increased, but cadence was decreased with wearing shoes. Furthermore, the support base and toe-off time increased. Double support time and stance time increased, but single support time decreased. The hip, knee, and ankle joints showed increased range of motion in children with the rear-foot strike with larger ground reaction force as well. Future studies may need to evaluate the influence of footwear types on gait performance of children in different age groups. Findings in this study may provide recommendations for suitable footwear types for different ages, achieving the aim of growth and development in a healthy and safe manner.

Australian secondary school principals', parents', and students' attitudes to prescribed school footwear guidelines

BACKGROUND

Adolescents are often required to wear footwear that adheres to uniform guidelines at secondary school. There is a paucity of literature on factors influencing school footwear choice and what drives the development of school footwear guidelines. The aims of this study were to describe (i) current school footwear guidelines in secondary schools across Australia, (ii) factors that influence footwear choice in secondary school students and their parents, and (iii) principals, parents, and students' beliefs on factors which contribute to school footwear guidelines.

METHODS

An online survey was distributed to principals, secondary school students (aged 14-19 years) and their parents across Australia. The survey included questions on current school footwear guidelines, factors influencing footwear choice (for students and parents), participants beliefs on the effect footwear has on musculoskeletal health, current and previous lower limb pain, and beliefs on factors that contribute to school footwear guidelines. Parent and student responses to factors that influence their footwear choice were compared using proportional odds logistic regression. Students and parents' responses to factors influencing footwear guidelines were compared to principal responses using proportional odds logistic regression. Significance was set at an alpha of < 0.05.

RESULTS

Eighty principals, 153 parents and 120 secondary school students responded to the survey. 96% (77/80) of principals reported that their schools have set guidelines for school footwear. 88% of principals considered comfort to be important when developing school footwear guidelines. Proportional odds logistics regression showed that parents and students were 3.4 and 4.9 times more likely, respectively, than principals to rate comfort as being important when schools develop footwear guidelines. More than 40% of students reported experiencing musculoskeletal pain, and 70% of these students reported the pain to be exacerbated when in their school shoes. Less than a third of participants considered healthcare recommendations important to the development of footwear guidelines.

CONCLUSIONS

Nearly all principals that participated in this survey had set guidelines for school footwear. There is a discord between parents, students, and principals on the importance that factors such as comfort, play in the development of school footwear guidelines.

How to measure children's feet: 3D foot scanning compared with established 2D manual or digital methods

BACKGROUND

In infants and young children, a wide heterogeneity of foot shape is typical. Therefore, children, who are additionally influenced by rapid growth and maturation, are a very special cohort for foot measurements and the footwear industry. The importance of foot measurements for footwear fit, design, as well as clinical applications has been sufficiently described. New measurement techniques (3D foot scanning) allow the assessment of the individual foot shape. However, the validity in comparison to conventional methods remains unclear. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare 3D foot scanning with two established measurement methods (2D digital scanning/manual foot measurements).

METHODS

Two hundred seventy seven children (125 m / 152 f; mean ± SD: 8.0 ± 1.5yrs; 130.2 ± 10.7cm; 28.0 ± 7.3kg) were included into the study. After collection of basic data (sex, age (yrs), body height (cm), body weight (kg)) geometry of the right foot was measured in static condition (stance) with three different measurement systems (fixed order): manual foot measurement, 2D foot scanning (2D desk scanner) and 3D foot scanning (hand-held 3D scanner). Main outcomes were foot length, foot width (projected; anatomical; instep), heel width and anatomical foot ball breadth. Analysis of variances for dependent samples was applied to test for differences between foot measurement methods (Post-hoc analysis: Tukey-Kramer-Test; α=0.05).

RESULTS

Significant differences were found for all outcome measures comparing the three methods (p<0.0001). The span of foot length differences ranged from 3 to 6mm with 2D scans showing the smallest and 3D scans the largest deviations. Foot width measurements in comparison of 3D and 2D scans showed consistently higher values for 3D measurements with the differences ranging from 1mm to 3mm.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggests that when comparing foot data, it is important to consider the differences caused by new measurement methods. Differences of about 0.6cm are relevant when measuring foot length, as this is the difference of a complete shoe size (Parisian point). Hence, correction factors may be required to compare the results of different measurements appropriately. The presented results may have relevance in the field of ergonomics (shoe industry) as well as clinical practice.

Footwear comfort: a systematic search and narrative synthesis of the literature

OBJECTIVE

To provide a narrative synthesis of the research literature pertaining to footwear comfort, including definitions, measurement scales, footwear design features, and physiological and psychological factors.

METHODS

A systematic search was conducted which yielded 101 manuscripts. The most relevant manuscripts were selected based on the predetermined subheadings of the review (definitions, measurement scales, footwear design features, and physiological and psychological factors). A narrative synthesis of the findings of the included studies was undertaken.

RESULTS

The available evidence is highly fragmented and incorporates a wide range of study designs, participants, and assessment approaches, making it challenging to draw strong conclusions or implications for clinical practice. However, it can be broadly concluded that (i) simple visual analog scales may provide a reliable overall assessment of comfort, (ii) well-fitted, lightweight shoes with soft midsoles and curved rocker-soles are generally perceived to be most comfortable, and (iii) the influence of sole flexibility, shoe microclimate and insoles is less clear and likely to be more specific to the population, setting and task being performed.

CONCLUSION

Footwear comfort is a complex and multifaceted concept that is influenced not only by structural and functional aspects of shoe design, but also task requirements and anatomical and physiological differences between individuals. Further research is required to delineate the contribution of specific shoe features more clearly, and to better understand the interaction between footwear features and individual physiological attributes.