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Background: Evaluating shoes during sport-related movements may provide a better assessment of plantar loads associated with repetitive injury and provide more specific data for comparing shoe cushioning characteristics., Hypothesis: Accelerating, cutting, and jumping pressures will be higher than in straight running, differentiating regional shoe cushioning performance in sport-specific movements., Study Design: Controlled laboratory study., Materials and Methods: Peak pressures on seven anatomic regions of the foot were assessed in 10 male college athletes during running straight ahead, accelerating, cutting left, cutting right, jump take-off, and jump landing wearing Speed TD and Air Pro Turf Low shoes (Nike, Beaverton, Ore). Pedar insoles (Novel, Munich, Germany) were sampled at 99 Hz during the 6 movements., Results: Cutting and jumping movements demonstrated more than double the pressure at the heel compared with running straight, regardless of shoe type. The Air Pro Turf showed overall lower pressure for all movement types (P<.0377). Cutting to the left, the Air Pro Turf shoe had lower heel pressures (36.6 +/- 12.5 N/cm(2)) than the Speed TD (50.3 +/- 11.2 N/cm(2)) (P<.0001), and the Air Pro Turf had lower great toe pressures than the Speed TD (44.8 +/- 8.1 N/cm(2) vs 54.4 +/- 8.4 N/cm(2); P= .0002). The Air Pro Turf also had significantly lower pressures than the Speed TD at the central forefoot during acceleration (38.2 +/- 8.3 N/cm(2) vs 50.8 +/- 7.4 N/cm(2); P<.0001)., Conclusion: Sport-related movements load the plantar surface of the foot more than running straight. Shoe cushioning characteristics were more robustly assessed during sport-related movements (4 significant results detected) compared with running straight (1 significant result detected)., Clinical Relevance: There is an interaction between shoe cushioning characteristics and sport-related movements that may influence plantar pressure and repetitive stress injuries.

We surveyed 54 female dancers in two professional ballet companies. A total of 27 fractures were reported in 17 dancers. Metatarsal fractures were the most common (63%), followed by fractures of the tibia (22%) and spine (7%). Dancers who danced greater than 5 hours per day were significantly more likely to have a stress fracture than those dancing less than 5 hours per day. Dancers in the stress fracture group also had a significantly longer duration of amenorrhea than those in the group with no stress fractures. No significant difference was found between the dancers who had stress fractures and those who did not with regard to any of the other variables examined. These data suggest that prolonged amenorrheic intervals and heavy training schedules may predispose ballet dancers to stress fractures. Of the 17 dancers with stress fractures, only 1 had neither of these risk factors.