The effects of gender, age, and body mass on dynamic foot shape and foot deformation inchildren and adolescents

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of the present study is to identify influences of gender, age, and body mass on the dynamic foot morphology and foot deformation of maturing feet. Only advancements in scanner technology enable recording of foot morphology during walking. Methods: Static and dynamic foot morphology of 2554 participants (6-16 years) were measured with DynaScan4D. Different foot measures corresponding to measures used in last construction were defined. Influences of gender, age, and body mass were calculated within the whole sample by multiple linear regression analysis and within matched groups by Student's t-test. Results: The results of multiple linear regression analysis show similar patterns in boys and girls. The explained variance (R 2 ) of the differences between static and dynamic foot morphology is low. R 2 is higher for the maximum dynamic foot measures where the respective static value mainly predicts the dynamic value. Relative maximum dynamic values of foot height, width, and girth are higher in overweight, younger, and male participants. The deformation of the instep height and the angle of the fifth toe differ between overweight and normal weight participants. Between boys and girls as well as children and adolescents there are differences in the deformation of the ball area. Conclusion: There are effects of gender, age, and body mass on dynamic foot morphology and deformation. The differences are small regarding the high variability. Thus, dynamic adjustments are applicable without customising to gender, age, and body mass. However, it is important to account for the high variability and for static and dynamic situations. This should be discussed with focus on use of resilient materials. These results can improve footwear design and thus contribute to healthy foot development.

Evaluation of the rule-of-thumb: calculation of the toe allowance for developing feet

“…Regarding the roll-over process, most of body weight is already shifted to the forefoot when the toes touch the ground. Thus, it can be assumed that no additional extension takes place and MBL is representative for foot extension (Barisch-Fritz et al, 2014).…”

“…The medial point was manually detected for each frame. The reliability of this procedure was determined for static (intra-class correlation coefficient, ICC D 0.978, RMSE D 2.3 mm) and dynamic situations (ICC D 0.992, RMSE D 2.3 mm) ( Barisch-Fritz et al, 2014). Mean values of three dynamic trials were used for calculating foot extension and walking advance.…”

“…To capture dynamic trials, children had to step centrally onto the glass plate. Furthermore, they were instructed to walk with predefined walking speed adjusted to body height (Barisch-Fritz, Schmeltzpfenning, Plank, & Grau, 2014). After several training trials, three valid trials were captured.…”

“…This study aims to systematically determine TA using a new algorithm based on considerations by Rossi and Tennant (2011). To achieve this, 2554 children were examined using a new scanner system, called DynaScan4D, which allows three-dimensional (3D) capturing of feet during walking (Barisch-Fritz, Schmeltzpfenning, Plank, Hein, & Grau, 2013;Schmeltzpfenning, Plank, Krauss, Aswendt, & Grau, 2009). The objectives of this study are as follows:…”

Footwear fit in schoolchildren of southern Spain: a population study

“…With these growth rates, it seems only logical that the footwear of schoolchildren may become small quickly. Current reviews on the topic emphasize the importance of taking into account the changing morphology of children’s feet, which, along with their high functional demand, must be considered when designing ergonomic footwear [5, 6]. In the same way, some studies have shown that foot shapes differ between populations and genders, and for proper footwear fit, footwear should have enough size varieties to imitate different foot shapes of all humanity [7, 8].…”