NCT03853863

Minimalist Shoes Walking for Children

Walking With Minimalist Shoes to Promote Intrinsic Foot Muscle Growth and Foot Arch Integrity in Preschool Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 116 (estimated)
• Sponsor: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 3 Years – 6 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

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.

Conditions

• Muscle Strength
• Ultrasonography
• Child, Preschool

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	in-school walking training with minimalist shoes	Participants in the MSW group will be given a pair of minimalist shoes for all in-school activities (i.e., 5 days/week and 7 hours/day) for 12 weeks. Similar to previous minimalist footwear studies, the intervention duration will be gradually increased over the 12-week training. In brief, subjects will wear the minimalist shoes for 1 out of 5 school days at the first week; 2 days at the second week, and so on until fully use of the minimalist shoes at the fifth week.
BEHAVIORAL	in-school walking training with protective shoes	Participants in the TSW group will be given a pair of given a pair of protective shoes with arch support for all in-school activities (i.e., 5 days/week and 7 hours/day) for 12 weeks,while follow the same wearing pattern as the MSW group.

Timeline

• Start date: 2020-12-01
• Primary completion: 2022-05-01
• Completion: 2022-12-01
• First posted: 2019-02-26
• Last updated: 2020-02-11

Locations

1 site across 1 country: China