Fall Prevention Shoes

Researches show that aging causes drastic changes in human feet, for example, fat pad atrophy, foot widening etc. Therefore, elderly have many foot problems such as hallux valgus and hammer toe. This results in ill fitting of shoes and poor shoe wearing habit. They prefer to wear shoes like slippers, sandals and cloth shoes which are inappropriate size with slippery outsole, poor fixation design, or too flexible heel counter. All these have poor stability, in which affect the walking gait and eventually initiate fall among elderly.

Therefore, we would like to design a series of fall prevention shoes which can fit the deformed feet of elderly, improve their comfort and postural stability. This in turns reduces their risk of falls. To do this, a database of elderly's foot shape and foot size is essential for development of well-fit fall prevention shoes in Chinese community.

The foot shapes of 499 (103 male and 396 female) elderly aged 60 or above were measured using a 3D laser foot scanner. 3D foot shapes, eighteen foot parameters, stature, body weight, and age were collected and analyzed.
There were significant paired differences between the left and right feet in foot length, foot girth, instep length, and fifth toe angle. Foot length was highly correlated with body height in both male and female, while body mass index (BMI) correlated much stronger with foot width than foot length. Except first toe angle and fifth toe angle, all the other foot parameters were significantly smaller in female than in male. It was not surprising that male and female elderly had different foot shapes for the same body size, indicating the need for separate footwear design. There were age-related decline in some foot parameters, which might be explained by the decrease in height, BMI of elderly with age.

The fall prevention shoes are still under development. The foot database will be used for future footwear design. We hope these characterized foot parameters can help us to develop a series of comfortable fall prevention shoes with the function of enhancing proprioception and balance for Chinese elderly.

Related Articles

Effects of footwear features on balance and stepping in older people.
Menant JC, Steele JR, Menz HB, Munro BJ, Lord SR. Gerontology. 2008;54(1):18-23..
Footwear and postural stability in older people.
Menz HB, Lord SR. J Am Podiatr Med Assoc. 1999 Jul;89(7):346-57.