Foot Morphology Data Across Age Groups for Women Active in Sport, 2022-2024

Dixon, Sharon and Reeves, Joanna (2024). Foot Morphology Data Across Age Groups for Women Active in Sport, 2022-2024. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-857424

The needs of older women are largely ignored in many areas of life, and this is particularly true when it comes to sport and exercise. Yet sustaining fitness and activity levels for women as they age has life-changing and lasting benefits in relation to physical health, happiness and mental wellbeing.

In the older female population, a particular barrier to remaining physically active is lower limb pain and injury risks. Women aged 50+ face particular barriers to getting and/or staying physically active. As well as an increased incidence of pain, discomfort and injury, this group are not well-supported in terms of assistive and appropriate sports technologies, sportswear and footwear -- which tend to be developed for, and marketed to young people.

In fact, the majority of exercise and sport-related injury prevention research is conducted on young, often male, adults, largely in the context of elite sports. The effects of gender and ageing on bodily biomechanics and physiology remain poorly understood, making it challenging to remove or even address these barriers and changes to injury risks. Furthermore, conventional biomechanics studies are limited to laboratory-based research with small participant numbers, preventing large-scale data insights of normal people doing normal sports in normal settings. There is an urgent need to progress our understanding of female sports biomechanics through life, and develop relevant technologies and products to support inclusive sports participation by women of all ages.

Project MISFIT aims to address this gap in the Healthy Ageing space by developing a new movement analytics service that is designed specifically for older women. This will provide evidence-based information regarding bespoke exercise regimes and injury prevention to support continued safe participation in physical activity.

MISFIT will build on KYMIRA's award-winning sports apparel solutions, which will be adapted for older females. The project uses smart garments equipped with sensors and pressure measuring insoles, to capture and integrate kinematic (movement), kinetic (force) and physiological data during everyday sports. MISFIT will enable large-scale data-gathering to provide population-level insights into injury mechanisms and optimum exercise regimes as women get older. MISFIT will translate the data and learnings to provide a sports advisory service to users. In a further innovation, award-winning sports footwear developer Ida Sports will use the service to inform the user-centric design of a new range of sports footwear to support women to continue in sport participation as they age.

Data description (abstract)

Foot morphology in the general population has been shown to change with age and active older adults have reported a need for wide-fitting footwear. This study recruited 374 women active in racket sports and team sports in the United Kingdom who had their feet scanned while 50% weight bearing. Participants were grouped into 10-year age bands ranging from 18-29 years to 70-79 years. Data analysis was performed on the widths, heights and circumferences of participants’ right feet normalised to foot length, as well as an assessment of hallux valgus angle and deformity. The 18–29-year group had significantly smaller measures of foot width, ball of foot circumference and short heel circumference (p<0.05, η2 =0.042- η2 =0.056) compared to the older groups. The foot dorsum height and circumference at 50% foot length were significantly less in the oldest age groups compared to the middle age groups (p= 0.0001, η2 = 0.055 and p= 0.0007, η2 = 0.044 respectively). There was some evidence of increased hallux valgus deformity with age. In conclusion, designers and manufacturers of athletic footwear should be aware of the changes in footwear morphology with age in order to provide more inclusive footwear.

Data creators: