HEALTH: Wrong size shoes cause backache

British women are being stopped in their tracks by ill-fitting shoes, according to a new study. One-third of women are cramming their feet into shoes too small or sliding in footwear too big, causing damaged feet or backache.

About 700 pairs of women's feet were measured during research by the home shopping company J D Williams, which found: 34 per cent of women suffered shoes that pinched their feet; only 39 per cent could name their correct shoe fitting; more than 40 per cent said their feet swelled during the afternoon and 35 per cent took shoes at least one full size larger to make room for wide fittings. The larger-framed woman of the 1990s was one explanation why the modern woman could no longer fit into 1950s measurements.