Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34645918›Full record

Trial reportScientific reports2021

Footwear microclimate and its effects on the microbial community of the plantar skin.

Te Miao, Peihua Wang, Nan Zhang, Yuguo Li

Open access · goldAbstract readClinical Trial
In one paragraph

Trial report in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
1.0field-weighted citation impact, top 21% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. S1 Guideline on Infected Interdigital Intertrigo (also called Gram-Negative Toe Web Infection).Journal der Deutschen Dermatologischen Gesellschaft = Journal of the German Society of Dermatology : JDDG · 2026
    Guideline
  2. Review
  3. Article
  4. The skin microbiome in dermatologic disease.Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology · 2025
    Review
  5. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Te MiaoDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, SAR, China.
Peihua WangDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, SAR, China.
Nan ZhangDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, SAR, China.
Yuguo LiDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, SAR, China. liyg@hku.hk.
University of Hong Kong · HKChinese University of Hong Kong · CN

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The association between the footwear microclimate and microbial community on the foot plantar skin was investigated by experiments with three participants. Novel methods were developed for measuring in-shoe temperature and humidity at five footwear regions, as well as the overall ventilation rate inside the footwear. Three types of footwear were tested including casual shoes, running shoes, and perforated shoes for pairwise comparison of footwear microclimate and corresponding microbial community on the skin. The major findings are as follows: (1) footwear types make a significant difference to in-shoe temperature at the instep region with the casual shoes sustaining the warmest of all types; (2) significant differences were observed in local internal absolute humidity between footwear types, with the casual shoes sustaining the highest level of humidity at most regions; (3) the perforated shoes provided the highest ventilation rate, followed by running and casual shoes, and the faster the gait, the larger the discrepancy in ventilation rate between footwear types; (4) the casual shoes seemed to provide the most favorable internal environment for bacterial growth at the distal plantar skin; and (5) the bacterial growth at the distal plantar skin showed a positive linear correlation with the in-shoe temperature and absolute humidity, and a negative linear correlation with the ventilation rate. The ventilation rate seemed to be a more reliable indicator of the bacterial growth. Above all, we can conclude that footwear microclimate varies in footwear types, which makes contributions to the bacterial growth on the foot plantar skin.

Indexed as

Microbial ConsortiaShoesAdultFootHumansMaleSkin

Identifiers

PMID34645918
PMCPMC8514438
OpenAlexW3205885178

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.