The unshod child into womanhood—forefoot morphology in two populations

Abstract

Many children walk barefoot in South Africa. Unshod (barefoot) or partially shod (thong-type sandals) leisure behaviour may persist in adulthood. This study investigated whether unshod childhood results in adult increased forefoot width. Sixty urban adult females, of Afrikaans, English, Greek, Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swati, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu ethnic origin, constituted two groups of thirty participants each. The linguistic groups corresponded to one group of Caucasoid descent while the other group comprised participants of Black African tribal descent. Selected foot measurements, body weight and height were combined with structured interview data regarding subjective memory of time spent partially shod or unshod in childhood, current partially shod or unshod leisure behaviour and shoe fit experience. More than half (62%) displayed increased or above standard forefoot width (forefoot width ratio ≤ 2.62). Results of one-tailed upper-tailed t-tests ( t = 0.942, d.f. = 29) support H 1 (5% level of significance) that walking unshod does not result in wider than standard forefoot width. Correlation analysis indicated a significant association between body mass index and both forefoot width and arch length but only in black females ( p-value = 0.0000). Results cannot support the hypothesis that an unshod childhood per se results in increased forefoot width. The influence of increased body mass index to forefoot width and arch length in only one of the two groups suggests that other factors such as genetics play a role. These findings may have important implications for health professionals and footwear manufacturers alike.