Footwear assessment

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Development and evaluation of a tool for the assessment of footwear characteristics

Christian J Barton, Daniel Bonanno, Hylton B Menz

Journal of Foot and Ankle Research 2009, 2:10

Background
Footwear characteristics have been linked to falls in older adults and children, and the development of many musculoskeletal conditions. Due to the relationship between footwear and pathology, health professionals have a responsibility to consider footwear characteristics in the etiology and treatment of various patient presentations. In order for health professionals and researchers to accurately and efficiently critique an individual’s footwear, a valid and reliable footwear assessment tool is required. The aim of this study was to develop a simple, efficient, and reliable footwear assessment tool potentially suitable for use in a range of patient populations.

Methods
Consideration of previously published tools, other footwear related literature, and clinical considerations of three therapists were used to assist in the development of the tool. The tool was developed to cover fit, general features, general structure, motion control properties, cushioning, and wear patterns. A total of 15 participants (who provided two pairs of shoes each) were recruited, and assessment using the scale was completed on two separate occasions (separated by 1 – 3 weeks) by a physiotherapist and a podiatrist on each participant’s dominant foot. Intra-rater and inter-rater reliability were evaluated using intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) (model 2, 1) and the 95% limits of agreement (95% LOAs) for continuous items, and percentage agreement and kappa (к) statistics for categorical items.

Results
All categorical items demonstrated high percentage agreement statistic for intra-rater (83 – 100%) and inter-rater (83 – 100%) comparisons. With the exception of last shape and objective measures used to categorise the adequacy of length, excellent intra-rater (ICC = 0.91 – 1.00) and inter-rater reliability (ICC = 0.90 – 1.00) was indicated for continuous items in the tool, including the motion control properties scale (0.91 – 0.95).

Conclusion
A comprehensive footwear assessment tool with good face validity has been developed to assist future research and clinical footwear assessment. Generally good reliability amongst all items indicates that the tool can be used with confidence in research and clinical settings. Further research is now required to determine the clinical validity of each item in various patient populations.

 

Development and reproducibility of a short questionnaire to measure use and usability of custom-made orthopaedic shoes.
van Netten JJ, Hijmans JM, Jannink MJ, Geertzen JH, Postema K.
J Rehabil Med. 2009 Nov;41(11):913-8.

 

Development and evaluation of a tool for the assessment of footwear characteristics
"For this item, therapist palpation was used to categorise footwear as too short (< 1/2 a thumb's width), good (between a 1/2 and 1 1/2 of a thumb's width), or too long (> 1 1/2 of a thumb's width)"

My wife's thumb is half the width of mine, who's did they use for the study?

"This involved measuring the length inside the shoe using a flexible plastic straw, measuring foot length using a custom built Brannock-style device, and calculating the difference."

Why would you use a plastic straw when the same company (brannock) produce in internal shoe measurement device as well as the foot measurement devise?

"To measure the adequacy of footwear width, grasping of the upper over the metatarsal heads was used to categorise footwear as too wide (excessive bunching of the upper), good (slight bunching of the upper), or too narrow (tight, taught upper unable to be grasped"

No, this usually means the shoe is too deep, if it was too wide the foot would be able to be moved way from the medial(or lateral) feather edge of the shoe

Board lasting involves using a board, usually made out of light weight wood

What the ! l dont know everything about footwear but never in 30 years of making footwear have l ever used or heard of anyone using wood for an insole , a wooden clog is as close as you will get, although as an apprentice l know some of the old shoes that came in for repair had wooden shanks but that is still not an insole

, whilst slip lasting involves stitching the upper directly to the sole

Slip lasting does not involve stitching any thing to directly the sole, it is sewn to the insole

The three researchers included a physiotherapist with three years clinical experience, a podiatrist with nine years clinical experience and a podiatrist with 15 years clinical and research experience.

You would think they would involve a C.Ped or even a commercial footwear manufacture for a study of this kind, lets face it if it is published it may well be used as a teaching tool and the last thing anyone needs is miss informed students, at least this time we didnt get the Derby / Oxford confusion again