Prevalence of nontraumatic foot pain among urban young working women and its contributing factors

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Foot pain is a common problem, especially in women, and studies have shown that it is related to footwear. This study was conducted to establish the prevalence of nontraumatic foot pain and its contributing factors in young working Malaysian women in an urban setting. METHODSThe survey was conducted on a group of working women (age range 21-40 years) selected using convenience sampling. Data on foot problems was collected through an investigator-directed questionnaire and during clinical inspection of the foot.RESUlTS A total of 400 women, with a mean age of 29.4 years, were recruited. Half (n = 200) of the women had experienced recurrent nontraumatic foot pain in the past one year. Subjective assessments of foot pain using the Numeric Intensity Scale gave an average score of 4.89 ± 1.78 (range 2-10), with most episodes occurring at the heel. There was no statistically significant association between foot pain and age, ethnicity or body mass index. However, there was a higher incidence of foot pain in women wearing high-heeled footwear than those wearing non-high-heeled footwear (p = 0.027, odds ratio 1.591).CONClUSION Nontraumatic foot pain is common among young working women in our society. More than half (68.4%) of the women with foot pain in our study attributed the pain to footwear. Wearing high-heeled shoes to work was a significant contributing factor. Increased public awareness on the importance of proper footwear may help to reduce the prevalence of nontraumatic foot pain in working women.

High-heeled shoes and musculoskeletal injuries: a narrative systematic review

“…One 29 was assessed as moderate quality and the other 30 as low quality. Five studies assessed the association between high heels and musculoskeletal pain risk, of which three 31–33 (60%) found a significant association and two 28 34 (40%) did not. Of the three positive studies, two 32 33 were assessed as moderate quality and one 31 as low quality.…”

“…Both negative studies were assessed as low quality. Chua et al 31 provided an OR of 1.60 for the association between use of high heels and foot pain. Hong et al 32 and Yung-Hui and Wei-Hsien 33 provided analysis of variance F values of 56.8 and 46.8, respectively.…”

Prevalence and associated factors of foot and ankle pain among nurses at a university hospital in Japan: A cross-sectional study

“…The result of the visual analog scale scores were categorized into high comfort, medium comfort, and low comfort groups, using the tertile values. Subjects also revealed the frequency of wearing high-heeled shoes of 4 cm or more as never/occasionally, or 1 day per week/2 days per week, or more 6) .…”

“…The prevalence of disabling foot and ankle pain among the general population is quite high, at up to 30% 4 , 5) . It is also common in younger people, and 50% of white-collar working women between 21 and 40 years of age had experienced the foot and ankle pain in the previous year 6) . Stress on the foot and ankle is expected to be higher in nurses than in the general population and white-collar workers, because nurses typically walk as many as 8 to 9.6 km in a 12-hour shift 7) .…”

Analyzing the effect of an arch support functional insole on walking and jogging in young, healthy females

“…Therefore, it is necessary and desirable to prevent metatarsal pain in young women. In addition, the most common sites for foot pain in young women are the metatarsal heads (25.0%), secondary to the heel [4]. A fundamental etiological component of metatarsal pain is the repetitive load observed in the forefoot, and the most common cause was due to the increased load of one or more metatarsal heads during the stance phase of gait [5].…”