Foot dimensions of elderly people with and without diabetes mellitus - a data basis for shoe design

Injuries from footwear are common in elderly people, particularly in those with diabetes mellitus and polyneuropathy. A common cause is a mismatch between foot and shoe.

To assess the length and the breadth of the feet by an automatic measuring device in 568 patients with diabetic polyneuropathy and in 100 nondiabetic control subjects of the same mean age of 64 years.

While the foot length in all cases matched well with the size of the normal footwear available on the market, more than two thirds of the feet were considerably broader than the normal footwear available. The foot breadth correlated variably with the foot length. Tables of foot dimensions for men and women are provided over the complete range of shoe sizes.

This anthropometric data set on feet, which is the first conducted in elderly people, proves that most feet of elderly people with or without diabetic neuropathy do not fit ordinary casual footwear. Therefore, the construction of shoes according to the anthropometric data of elderly people is required in order to prevent foot injuries in this particular population.