Online Program

317731
Foot and Shoe Size Awareness


Tuesday, November 3, 2015 : 10:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.

Nell Blake, Doctor of Podiatric Medicine, Department of Orthopaedic and Rehabilatation Penn State Hershey Medical Center, Bone and Joint Institute, 30 Hope Drive Bldg. A, Hershey PA 17033, Hershey, PA
Objective:

Demonstrate and create public awareness of foot size and shoe size at a community or health fair event.

Method:

Foot length and width were measured during these events after the participants had given us their consent and current shoe size. Three questions about foot measurements were asked of the volunteer participants at the events. From the type of data collected our statistician suggested using  Intraclass correlation and Kappa to analyze the data. Therefore no actual test of significance was obtained, only the statistics that were compared to a scale  (0=no agreement, 1=perfect agreement) and a confidence interval around the data were obtained. The total number of participants were 176 from two community events.

Results:

Participants shoe length given to us were strongly correlated with the foot sizes measured. However, participants shoe width given to us by the participants were rarely in agreement with the foot size width measured by the Brannock device. There were 58 participants of the 176 who did not recall the last time they had their foot measured. Out of the 176 participants 51 wanted to know their proper foot size prior to foot measurement and 18 just wanted to participate in the study. There were 73 participants out of 176 who said they would have their foot measured again in the future.

Conclusion:

At two community events, participants were knowledgeable of their shoe length but were not knowledgeable of their shoe width. Participants realized the importance of foot measurement for a proper shoe size.

Learning Areas:

Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Demonstrate and create public awareness of foot size and shoe size.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been a podiatrist for approximately twenty years and often find my patient population demonstrate pain and foot pathology relief after having their foot measured and properly sized for shoes. For many years I have often wondered how prevalent this problem was in the general population. My position as assistant professor in podiatry at Penn State Medical Center in the department of orthopedics allows me an opportunity to access the community for this project.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.