Foot pressure differences in men and women

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fas.2009.03.005Get rights and content

Abstract

Background

Women and men are anatomically and physiologically different in a number of ways. Anthropometric studies have shown considerable differences in the foot bones of both genders. These differences could potentially mean different foot pressures in men and women.

Objective

The aim of our study was to investigate any potential foot pressure differences between males and females using the Pedar®-M (Novel gmbh, Germany) in-shoe foot pressure measurement system.

Methods

Twenty-eight subjects (16 females and 12 males) were recruited. Peak pressure, contact area, contact time, pressure–time integral, force–time integral, instant of peak pressure, maximum force and mean force were recorded and subsequently analysed.

Results

In males, contact area was significantly larger in all regions of the foot compared with females. There were no significant between gender differences in peak pressure, contact time, pressure–time integral and instant of peak pressure. Force–time integral was significantly greater in males than females under the 1st, 3rd, and 4th metatarsal heads. Maximum force was also significantly higher in males under the heel, 1st and 3rd metatarsal heads. Mean force was greater in males under the 3rd metatarsal head.

Conclusion

There were no peak pressure differences; however the contact area of the male foot was larger than that in females.

Introduction

Foot pressure analysis has been used in various studies to detect foot pathologies [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]. These studies have identified the pressure characteristics during gait, contact area of the plantar aspect of the foot and the forces produced. Despite the range of devices available to measure these characteristics during barefoot and in-shoe pressure measurements, there have been no studies to explore these characteristics and investigate differences in foot pressures between males and females. Women and men are anatomically and physiologically different in a number of ways. They differ in both shape and size. For example, females have greater valgus at the elbow, greater varus at the hip and greater valgus at the knee compared to males [6]. Anthropometric studies have found considerable differences between the foot bones of each gender which have helped in identifying gender in forensic science studies [7], [8]. Murphy et al. [9] compared the mid foot contact area and plantar pressure in males and females and found no difference among genders in this region. However they divided the foot into four regions only, which does not fully represent all areas of foot well and fails to show subtle differences in the different regions. They only compared the midfoot region for plantar peak pressure and contact area in their study. No comparison was done for contact time, pressure–time integral, force–time integral, instant of peak pressure, maximum force and mean force. The purpose of this study was to compare in-shoe foot pressure parameters in males and females in 10 different regions of the foot for all the important pressure measurement characteristics.

Section snippets

Methods

Twenty-eight volunteers (16 females and 12 males) were recruited. Subjects were excluded if they had experienced foot pain within the previous 6 months, had any previous foot surgery, presented with congenital or acquired foot deformities on clinical examination, or had any other disability that could affect gait (e.g. flat feet, visual and/or hearing impairments, problems in the lower limb or spine, or any condition that necessitated the use of walking aids). Demographics including age,

Contact area

CA was significantly larger both statistically and clinically in all the regions of the foot in males compared to females (P < 0.001). The mean CA of the heel among males was 44.1 cm2 and in females it was 34.1 cm2. The great toe had a larger CA of 8.3 cm2 in males compared to 6.7 cm2 in females (P < 0.001). The 1st metatarsal head was larger in males (13.2 cm2) than in females (9.9 cm2). The difference in the contact area could not be attributed to the difference in the various BMI groups except in the

Discussion

Higbie et al. [12] studied the foot structure and in-shoe plantar pressure differences between 20 individuals in both genders. They found greater calcaneal eversion and forefoot varus in females compared to males. For the left foot, males had greater peak plantar pressure in the medial forefoot region than females (P = 0.009); however, females had higher peak plantar pressure in the lateral forefoot and hallux regions than males (P = 0.017 and P = 0.012, respectively). For the right foot, males had

Conclusion

The contact area is greater in males than in females, however there are no significant between gender differences in the peak pressure characteristics of the feet. The maximum and mean forces are higher in males and FTI is larger in males in certain regions. This is the first study investigating eight important foot pressure parameters.

Source of funding

Institute of Motion Analysis and Research (IMAR) internal funding.

Conflict of interest statement

We have no conflicts of interest either financial or personal with other people or organisations that could inappropriately influence our work.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. L. Cochrane and Dr. W. Wang for their help with statistics, Mr. I. Christie for illustrations and Mr. G. Boath for technical support.

References (19)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (66)

  • 3D customized triboelectric nanogenerator with high performance achieved via charge-trapping effect and strain-mismatching friction

    2022, Nano Energy
    Citation Excerpt :

    The part geometry was designed using 3D scanned data of the foot. For further analysis, we selected the heel region, because the highest pressure, which was expected to lead to the highest triboelectric efficiency, is distributed around the heels of sole areas during stepping [80]. Based on the surface data of the heel region, the upper and lower substrates were 3D modeled and 3D printed into conformal shapes to the part geometry.

  • Foot structures and their correlations with body height

    2020, Forensic Science International: Reports
    Citation Excerpt :

    In the male, the hindfoot and ankle measures correlated strongly with height, but the length of the male forefoot seems to vary significantly with height. All the bone structures in the foot that were analyzed in the female correlated weakly but equally with height, which might indicate that the biomechanical lever arm in the foot differs between male and female, which may help explain some foot pathologies [21]. Although there are known sex differences in the proportions of the entire length of the foot to body height [22], these differences may be due to differences in the forefoot length.

View all citing articles on Scopus
View full text