Foot Pain among the Elderly Subjects of Dhaka city

INTRODUCTION:  Foot pain is a common condition reported by at least one in every five among general population. Existing papers indicate that the prevalence of foot pain increases with age and, it is higher in female gender which suggested that intensity of pain is higher in overweight and obese population. Hitherto, actual causative factors related to foot pain is unknown. The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of foot pain and its associated factors among older subjects of Dhaka city.

METHODS: Under a cross-sectional study design a total number of 200 subjects from different selected areas in Dhaka city were screened purposively in the mid July 2013. According to WHO criteria 65-years were considered as elderly.  Data was collected by face-to-face interview through authenticate questionnaire. Appropriate univariate, bivariate and multivariate analyses were done accordingly by SPSS software Windows version. 

RESULTS:  The mean(±SD) age of the total respondents was 67(±5.5) (95%CI-54.9, 79.8) and 80.5% (95%CI-75, 85.9) were male. The mean(±SD) BMI was 26.3(±5.6) (CI-12.4, 40.2) and 59.5% (CI-52.7, 66.3) were overweight. The proportion of subjects with foot pain was 65.5% (CI-58.9, 72). The nature of foot pain was temporary and 41.98% (CI-35.1, 48.8) had moderate pain. Significant association for foot pain was seen with female gender (p<0.001), senior age group (p<0.001), married subjects (p<0.001), long standing working subjects (p=0.002), subject with large family (p=0.009) and high BMI (p=0.002). Footwear associated discomfort (p<0.001), prolonged footwear wearing (p=0.005), footwear size (p=0.016), poor body balance (p<0.001) and tremor during walking/standing (p<0.001) were showed significant association with foot pain.

CONCLUSIONS:  Above half of elderly subjects were sufferings from foot pain. Female gender, senior citizens, married subjects, prolonged standing subjects, big family’s subjects, elevated BMI, footwear associated discomfort, prolonged footwear wearing, footwear size, poor body balance and tremor at walking/standing were the major predictors for foot pain.