COMPARATIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF FOOT LENGTH AND SHOE SIZE IN MALE AND FEMALE ADOLESCENTS LIVING IN DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHICAL ZONES

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to compare the length of the left and right feet, as well as the shoe size in 19 year old adolescents living in different geographical zones. Foot-measuring device was used to measure the length of the foot in 222 people living in various regions of Belarus and the Southern Urals. We assessed the size of shoes worn by girls and boys. The study was conducted at the same period of day in the interval from 12.00 to 13.00, in the same microclimate conditions (room temperature +20 C, relative humidity – 51%, air velocity – 0, 2 m/s. The findings obtained show an increase in the length of the foot in 19 year old girls compared to the average values in this age group. The girls living in the Grodno region had a 0.47 cm longer foot than the girls living in the Brest region and 0.5 cm longer than girls living in the Minsk region. There are differences in the size between the left and right feet for the girls living in the Grodno and Brest regions: for girls from the Grodno region, the difference is 0.04 cm, and for girls living in the Minsk region – 0.02 cm. The average foot length of 19-year-old girls living in the Grodno region of Belarus differs significantly (p<0.05) from the foot length of girls in the Southern Urals. The difference makes up 1.5118 cm of the right foot and 1.6384 cm of the left foot. The feet in the residents of the Brest region (right 1, 1330 cm, left-1, 1616 cm) is longer than that of 19-year-old girls in the Southern Urals. The difference in foot length between girls from the Minsk region and the southern Urals is 1, 0358 cm for the right foot, and 1, 0814 cm for the left. The feet of boys living in Belarus is longer than that of the boys from the Southern Urals for the right foot by 0.7921 cm and for the left foot by 0.8957 cm. 19-year-old residents of the Grodno region wear shoes of a larger size than the girls of the same age from the Southern Urals.