Foot Facts

• The average person will walk 128,000kms in a lifetime, the equivalent to three times around the world.
  
  
• Foot pain can be a sign of systemic disease. 20% of rheumatoid arthritis cases and 35% of stress fractures occur in the feet.
  
  
• In older people, foot pain caused by stress fractures is associated with osteoporosis and can be an early warning sign for major fractures such as fractures of the hip.
  
  
• Children (mainly aged between 4 and 6) frequently experience pains in the feet and legs known as growing pains. In most cases these growing pains are treatable.
  
  
• In people with diabetes, the loss of pain sensation in the feet can lead to ulceration and amputation.
  
  
• Did You Know? A recent survey commissioned by the Australian Podiatry Association showed:
  
  
• More than 60% of Australians have suffered foot pain in their lifetime, two thirds of those in the last 12 months. Yet only a fraction of those people, two out of five, sought professional treatment for their pain.
  
  
• 30% of those surveyed had experienced foot pain in the last week.
  
  
• Foot pain was equally common to both men and women.
  
  
• Foot pain is experienced by people across the age spectrum but the older a person is, the more likely she/he is to have experienced foot pain. For example, more than half of people aged 50 and over had experienced foot pain in the year as compared to 35% of people aged 18-24.
  
  
• Younger people are less likely to seek professional treatment for foot pain (only 10%) than older people (half of those aged 50 and over had sought professional treatment).