Peer Review ; Review ; Publications

INTRODUCTIONFoot pain is a common problem, especially in women, and studies have shown that it is related to footwear. This study was conducted to establish the prevalence of nontraumatic foot pain and its contributing factors in young working Malaysian women in an urban setting.

METHODSThe survey was conducted on a group of working women (age range 21-40 years) selected using convenience sampling. Data on foot problems was collected through an investigator-directed questionnaire and during clinical inspection of the foot.

RESULTSA total of 400 women, with a mean age of 29.4 years, were recruited. Half (n = 200) of the women had experienced recurrent nontraumatic foot pain in the past one year. Subjective assessments of foot pain using the Numeric Intensity Scale gave an average score of 4.89 ± 1.78 (range 2-10), with most episodes occurring at the heel. There was no statistically significant association between foot pain and age, ethnicity or body mass index. However, there was a higher incidence of foot pain in women wearing high-heeled footwear than those wearing non-high-heeled footwear (p = 0.027, odds ratio 1.591).

CONCLUSIONNontraumatic foot pain is common among young working women in our society. More than half (68.4%) of the women with foot pain in our study attributed the pain to footwear. Wearing high-heeled shoes to work was a significant contributing factor. Increased public awareness on the importance of proper footwear may help to reduce the prevalence of nontraumatic foot pain in working women.

Adult ; Age Factors ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Developing Countries ; Female ; Foot ; Humans ; Pain ; epidemiology ; etiology ; physiopathology ; Pain Measurement ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors ; Shoes ; Singapore ; Urban Population ; Women, Working ; statistics & numerical data ; Young Adult

INTRODUCTIONCephalic index (CI), the ratio of head breadth to head length, is widely used to categorise human populations. The aim of this study was to access the impact of anthropometric measurements on the CI of male Japanese university students.

METHODSThis study included 1,215 male university students from Tokyo and Kyoto, selected using convenient sampling. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the effect of anthropometric measurements on CI.

RESULTSThe variance inflation factor (VIF) showed no evidence of a multicollinearity problem among independent variables. The coefficients of the regression line demonstrated a significant positive relationship between CI and minimum frontal breadth (p < 0.01), bizygomatic breadth (p < 0.01) and head height (p < 0.05), and a negative relationship between CI and morphological facial height (p < 0.01) and head circumference (p < 0.01). Moreover, the coefficient and odds ratio of logistic regression analysis showed a greater likelihood for minimum frontal breadth (p < 0.01) and bizygomatic breadth (p < 0.01) to predict round-headedness, and morphological facial height (p < 0.05) and head circumference (p < 0.01) to predict long-headedness. Stepwise regression analysis revealed bizygomatic breadth, head circumference, minimum frontal breadth, head height and morphological facial height to be the best predictor craniofacial measurements with respect to CI.

CONCLUSIONThe results suggest that most of the variables considered in this study appear to influence the CI of adult male Japanese students.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Body Height ; Cephalometry ; methods ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Head ; anatomy & histology ; Humans ; Japan ; Male ; Reference Values ; Regression Analysis ; Students ; Universities ; Young Adult

Introduction: Most of the authors currently agree that congenital talipes equinovarus (CTEV) or idiopathic clubfoot can be effectively treated with the Ponseti method instead of extensive soft tissue surgery. This study was conducted to investigate whether there is a difference in the outcome between starting treatment before one month of age or after that age. Methods: This is a retrospective study on babies with CTEV treated in University Malaya Medical Centre from 2013 to 2017. The 54 babies (35 boys and 19 girls) were divided into two cohorts, Group 1 that had treatment before the age of one month, and Group 2 that had treatment after one month old. The number of cast changes, rate of full correction, and rate of relapse after treatment were compared between the two groups. Results: Of the 54 babies, with 77 CTEV treated during the period, our outcome showed that the mean number of cast change was 5.9 for Group 1 and 5.7 for Group 2. The difference was not statistically significant. All the affected feet (100%) achieved full correction. One foot in the Group 1 relapsed, while three feet in Group 2 relapsed, but the difference was also not statistically significant. All of the relapsed feet were successfully treated with repeated Ponseti method. Conclusions: Treating CTEV using Ponseti method starting after one month was not associated with more casting change of higher rate of relapse