Minimalist Shoes Walking for Children
- Conditions
- Muscle StrengthUltrasonographyChild, Preschool
- Interventions
- Behavioral: in-school walking training with minimalist shoesBehavioral: in-school walking training with protective shoes
- Registration Number
- NCT03853863
- Lead Sponsor
- The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
- Brief Summary
This is a single-blind randomized control study that will investigate the effects of a 12-week in-school walking training with minimalist shoes for local preschool children on intrinsic foot muscle size, muscle strength, and foot arch stiffness. The children in the control group will wear traditional footwear with arch support. It is hypothesized that walking with minimalist shoes may impose a positive impact to strengthen the IFM and promote foot arch stiffness for preschool children.
- Detailed Description
Intrinsic foot muscles(IFM) are the prime stabilizers of the foot. When the IFM become weakened and unstable, the foot and lower limb become more vulnerable to injury. IFM develop across early childhood and evidence suggests that the critical time window for foot arch development is the first 6 years of life (i.e., preschool age). Human's feet and arches developed naturally due to the daily loads imposed on them, while evidence for using protective footwear to promote arch development is very weak. Moreover, the investigation suggested that local children may have a danger in insufficient daily physical activity. Thus the children may be at high risk for having weak feet.
Minimalist shoes are defined as footwear with little to no cushioning, highly flexible soles, and no arch support devices. Minimalist shoes are shaped with a wide toe box, allowing the foot to move more naturally than when confined in conventional footwear. Both running and walking studies have shown that the use of minimalist shoes increases IFM strength by increasing the mechanical load to the foot. Measuring the strength of individual IFM is challenging at best. However, muscle strength has been directly correlated with muscle size. As a result, studies have used imaging techniques such as MRI and ultrasound to measure foot muscle size. A very recent study suggests that walking with minimalist shoes increased the cross-sectional area (CSA), thickness and strength of IFM in adults. Similar findings have been reported by another study adopting a 12-week program.
This study aims to investigate the effects of a 12-week in-school walking training with minimalist shoes for local preschool children on intrinsic foot muscle size, muscle strength, and foot arch stiffness.
In view of the treatment effectiveness and user-friendliness, walking with minimalist shoes may impose a positive impact to strengthen the IFM and promote foot arch stiffness for preschool children.
Recruitment & Eligibility
- Status
- UNKNOWN
- Sex
- All
- Target Recruitment
- 116
- no history of known neurological or orthopedic conditions
- presentation of flexible flatfeet with the Chippaux-Smirak Index >0.6
- having previous experience using minimalist footwear
- presenting with any symptoms in the lower limbs within the last three months
Study & Design
- Study Type
- INTERVENTIONAL
- Study Design
- PARALLEL
- Arm && Interventions
Group Intervention Description minimalist shoes walking group (MSW) in-school walking training with minimalist shoes Subjects in the MSW group will be given a pair of minimalist shoes for all in-school activities (i.e., in-school walking training with minimalist shoes). traditional shoes walking group (TSW) in-school walking training with protective shoes Subjects in the TSW group will be given a pair of protective shoes with arch support while following the same wearing pattern as the MSW group (i.e., in-school walking training with protective shoes).
- Primary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method IFM strength in Newton The assessment will be performed at 12 weeks IFM strength will be measured using a specifically designed dynamometer. Each subject will perform a series of three foot strength tests in a randomized order i.e., doming, hallux flexion, and flexion of the first three lesser toes for the dominant foot. During the data collection, the subjects will be asked to hold the peak force for at least 3 seconds and each test will be performed thrice.
Thickness of flexor hallucis brevis in cm The assessment will be performed at 12 weeks An ultrasound scanning unit coupled with a linear array probe will be used to image the thickness of flexor hallucis brevis of the dominant foot.
Cross-sectional area of abductor hallucis in cm^2 The assessment will be performed at 12 weeks An ultrasound scanning unit coupled with a linear array probe will be used to image the cross sectional area of flexor digitorum brevis of the dominant foot.
Cross-sectional area of flexor digitorum brevis in cm^2 The assessment will be performed at 12 weeks An ultrasound scanning unit coupled with a linear array probe will be used to image the cross sectional area of flexor digitorum brevis of the dominant foot.
- Secondary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Foot arch stiffness The assessment will be performed at baseline, 6 weeks, and 12 weeks Walking kinematics and kinetics will be captured for each subject using an eight-camera motion capture system (Vicon, Oxford Metrics Group, Oxford, UK) and a force platform (Kistler Instruments, Winterthur, Switzerland) operating at 200 Hz and 1,000 Hz respectively. Reflective markers will be placed on the first metatarsal head, navicular tuberosity, and medial boarder of the calcaneus of the dominant limb according to a previous study. Following verbal instruction and demonstration, all subjects will be asked to walk barefoot along a 10-meter walkway across the force plate at a self-selected speed. After practicing, five successful walking trials (i.e., within-subject speed \< 5% variability) will be obtained from each subject.
Trial Locations
- Locations (1)
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
🇨🇳Hong Kong, China