Women wearing flats are at 50 percent increased risk of low back pain, a new study suggests.
For the study the researchers examined 1,930 men and women with pronated feet that tend to roll inward while walking. This generally happens to women with lower back ache. The participating women were of average age 60.
"The key takeaway from the study is that if women have low back pain, it may not be just the back," senior author Marian Hannan of the Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife in Boston, told Reuters. "It turns out that feet are important for the back."
Around 38 percent of the women in the study reported lower back pain.
"There has been only weak correlation between pronated feet and low back pain so I was happy to see some evidence of this in the study," said Christopher Kevin Wong, associate professor of rehabilitation and regenerative medicine at Columbia University in New York City. He was involved on the study.
"It's a method that shows promise, and will need to be validated against other measures of motion analysis," he told Reuters.
According to Hannan, the lower back ache is because the body uses other muscles to help make up for flat feet while walking. He explained that the foot is used in different ways during standing and walking.
"Women probably don't know if their foot function contributes to low back pain, but they can find out about it," Hannan said. She advised to see a physiotherapist for lower back ache.
People with low back pain can also reduce the ache by scrunching their toes on a towel spread on a flat surface for a period of time.
