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Stories for Reprint
Foot Problems Linked
to Age and Gender
By Ferdous Al-Faruque, MARRTC Staff
If your feet hurt, they might be trying to tell you that you have a problem. A new study by investigators at Hebrew SeniorLife's Institute for Aging Research and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, found that 28 percent of those surveyed felt pain in their feet on most days. It also found the prevalence of 25 foot disorders increased with age and were more common in women.
The study looked at 2231 adults between the ages of 44 and 100. Over half the participants were women.
Marian Hannan, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and principal investigator of the study, says our feet accumulate mileage with each passing year and the use and abuse of our feet take their toll. She also says that, as we grow older, we tend to put on weight and develop other diseases that can add stress to our feet.
The most common foot disorder found in the study was bunions, a condition where the big toe points towards the little toe, displacing the big toe. The disorder was found in 39 percent of the participants. Other common foot disorders were flat feet and hammertoes.
Hannan said she was most surprised by the large number of participants who, when tested with a tuning fork, had no sense of the vibratory feeling in their feet. Other than diabetes, there are few known common medical conditions that could explain this symptom. The problem most affected those above age 75, with one out of five people reporting no vibratory feeling in their feet in her study, and nearly all were not diabetic patients.
Though there may be hereditary links to the most common foot disorders in the study, they can also be directly linked to wearing bad shoes. Of those who felt pain in their feet almost every day, 52 percent of the women and 29 percent of the men blamed their shoes. "Women wear horrible shoes," said Hannan. "Especially in comparison to men." She says most women's shoes lack good arch support and have narrow toe boxes that squeeze the toes. "That doesn't even address the issue of high heels that causes your foot to be at a very bizarre angle," Hannan added.
On a brighter note, Hannan says people tend to become wiser about their feet as they age. "By the time they get to be older, they've pretty much already figured it out themselves that their shoes hurt their feet and they change their shoe-ware," she said.
But wisdom does not have to come with time. Make smarter shoe choices and if you experience a foot problem, discuss it with your health care provider.
According to Hannan, improving foot care does not stop with patients; physicians could do more, too. Hannan says doctors very rarely look at their patients' feet and when they do, it's even more uncommon for doctors to ask them to remove their socks. Hannan's one simple message for all healthcare professionals is, "Look at people's feet." A foot examination can tell a doctor a lot about a patient's circulation, their pain, and whether they are abusing their feet.
A survey by the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society has found that about 9 in 10 women wore shoes that were too small for their feet and 80 percent of women had some sort of foot problem. They also found that foot surgeries cost the American public at least $3.5 billion and 15 million lost workdays, and women account for 90 percent of them. Though women are more affected by foot problems, men are not exempt. Three out of four Americans will experience a foot problem in their lifetime according to the American College of Foot and Ankle Orthopedics and Medicine.
Think about that the next time your feet ache.
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