Ergonomic footwear for Sri Lankan primary schoolchildren: A review of the literature.
BACKGROUND
Foot ailments are common among schoolchildren, some of which may be attributed to wearing ill-fitting footwear. As schoolchildren often participate in athletic activity, they are doubly vulnerable to foot ailments, and are particularly vulnerable to conditions such as hallux valgus, Achilles tendonitis, athlete's foot, corns and calluses. Thus, there is an acute need for the design and manufacture of ergonomic footwear for this target group. While research on appropriate footwear for children has been carried out in relation to child populations in other societies, research on the circumstances of Sri Lankan schoolchildren is lacking. Neither the requisite design know-how nor the information for design is available to footwear manufacturers.


OBJECTIVE
This review of the literature is aimed at confirming the need for ergonomic footwear from the point of view of the effects of wearing ill-fitting shoes and at identifying the requirements in terms of design information, especially for schoolchildren of the age group five to ten years, to empower footwear manufacturers.


METHODS
PubMed, Google scholar and Science Direct were used for the literature search.


RESULTS
208 publications were read in full, 94 of which are referenced in this review.


CONCLUSIONS
The review shows morphological measurements, behavior and activity patterns of schoolchildren and environmental conditions they are exposed to should be determined to formulate design information.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.
I S
IS
Hettigama
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.
H K G
HK
Punchihewa
Department of Textile and Clothing Technology, University of Moratuwa, Katubedda, Western Province, Sri Lanka.
N K
NK
Heenkenda
D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006804:Ergonomics; D005528:Foot / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D005534:Foot Diseases / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D012775:Shoes / Q000009:adverse effects; D013188:Sri Lanka
Biomechanics; anatomy of footwear; foot anatomy; last design; morphology