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  • Small Steps

Small Steps

There is a poor evidence base underpinning our understanding of how feet develop and what factors (such as body weight and ethnicity) influence this development. We do not know the factors that influence health behaviours relating to children’s feet. We need to embed a more scientific understanding of children’s feet into public health messages provided to parents, professional practice guidelines and standards, and paediatric health service provision.

Small Steps is a five-year collaborative research programme being jointly led by the Universities of Brighton and Salford. Funding of £1.5m comes from William M. Scholl Endowment Fund, a charity focused specifically on advancing foot health research and education in the UK. The fund is part of Central and North West London NHS Trust.

Small-steps

Project timeframes

The project runs from 2016 to 2021.

There are some fundamental gaps in our understanding of where parents get their knowledge on foot health, what concerns them, and how health professionals might provide appropriate support. This is very timely because of the increasing emphasis on prevention rather than cure of diseases in adulthood. Getting evidence based public foot health messages to parents should be a great way to prevent future problems

Dr Stewart Morrison, University of Brighton

Project aims

The project will investigate multi professional knowledge and practices toehter with parental knowledge, beliefs and behaviours related to managing children’s foot health. It will also describe, for the first time, the changes in foot structure and function that occur during the development of independent walking. Data will be collected on children in Manchester and Brighton.

The project will

  • investigate current foot health knowledge and practices, and factors affecting these, in relevant parent, professional and industry groups
  • document changes in foot structures and function during the development of independent walking

In the first work stream the researchers intend to

  • investigate and critically appraise children’s foot health information and resources available to parents, health professionals and commercial organisations.
  • Work directly with parents, health professionals and commercial organisations to investigate their understanding of children’s foot health.
  • Study parental and professional knowledge and practices related to children’s foot health at a national scale.
  • Create portfolios of evidence based public health messages to address the priorities identified by parents, health professionals and industry.

In the second work stream they will:

  • Investigate changes in feet as children develop from sitting, standing and to walking independently.
  • Investigate the influence of developmental factors such as body weight, ethnicity and age at which development occurs on the foot.

Research led by Dr Stewart Morrison will focus on understanding the beliefs of parents and health care professionals with regard to children foot health, and the factors that influence these. Professor Chris Nester of the University of Salford is leading work on how the foot develops as children start to walk independently. 

These developmental milestones typically occur between 6 and 18 months of age and bearing weight drives many changes in the feet and legs. We want to understand the fundamental relationship between these milestones and how our feet develop into the shapes they do.

Professor Chris Nester, University of Salford

Project findings and impact

The anticipated impacts associated with this project are as follows

  1. Parents, children and their families will benefit from the project through the provision of quality evidence based information about foot health in children.
  2. Clinicians will benefit from the project though an improved scientific understanding of how feet develop and the factors influencing development
  3. Industry will benefit from the project through new insight into children’s foot development, and understanding the perspectives of parents and professionals.
  4. Researchers will benefit from the project through the high quality robust research which will offer new intelligence on how feet develop and how parents and professionals manage children’s foot health.

Research team

Dr Stewart Morrison

Professor Chris Nester, University of Salford

Outputs

To follow as the project progresses

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