Evaluating and Determining the Foot Model: A Case Study from Iran

The previous studies showed that there are different models of foot in terms of appearance and size of the toes, including Egyptian, Roman, Greek, Semi-Roman, and square feet. But no information is available on the features of the Iranian foot. The purpose of the current study was to obtain the Iranian foot model using statistical and image analysis methods to determine whether the Iranian foot model adheres to the previous models or develops a new one.

In the current study, eight Pedoscope devices were provided and sent to eight provinces of the country to obtain images of the foot shape. The Cochran method was used to estimate the sample size. The sampling method used was the random cluster and the optimal probability accuracy was considered to be 0.05. In the Cochran relation, the p-value was 0.5. Statistical calculations were performed using Cochran's formula (for the left and right feet) of 385 men and women. Image J software was used to analyze the images and to determine the characteristics of the foot models.

The largest model in the female community was the Egyptian model, which covers 39.5% of the female population. After that, the Semi-Roman model was the most prevalent covering 33% of the female population. In the study of men's society, the Semi-Roman and Egyptian foot models cover 43.59% and 42.92% of community, respectively.

The two Egyptian and Semi-Roman models are the two common foot models in Iranians that cover about 86% of the male population and more than 70 % of the female population in this study. Due to the predominance of the Egyptian foot shape, diseases such as Onychocryptosis are common among Iranians.