Sports shoes: a guide to shoe assessment and their suitability for patients

The sports shoe can be evaluated as part of the overall assessment of the patient with musculoskeletal symptoms.

At a time when more people are taking up physical activity, musculoskeletal complaints may become a more common presentation in general practice. When evaluating a patient with a musculoskeletal injury, all possible contributing risk factors should be assessed. Extrinsic factors to ask about include the amount and type of sports training, the sports equipment used and the shoe worn. This article focuses on the sports shoe and provides a guide to assessing its suitability for individual patients.