Walking through the centre of London on a hot July afternoon this year, I noticed a couple of women wearing summery dresses each sporting a pair of winter boots. Probably another fashion that has passed me by, I mused.  But perhaps I should think again: recent research from The College of Podiatry suggests that, with 1 in 5 UK women being embarrassed about their feet, 12 percent resort to covering them up on a sunny day because they don’t like how they look.

So exactly what probelms are causing this anxiety? Top of the list comes the painful blister (55%), followed by cracked heels (45%), veruccas (28%), corns (24%) and ingrown toenails (20%). Apparently, twice the number of women to men report suffering from corns, cracked heels and bunions. Despite these problems, 19 per cent of women haven’t sought help because they didn’t think their foot complaint was important.

Why do more women suffer than men? Not unexpectedly, fashion does feature as a cause of some of these problems, for both sexes, but the survey results showed that twice as many women put up with discomfort and pain, with 43 per cent admitting they have continued to wear uncomfortable shoes even though they hurt their feet. A third (36%) of women, compared with just 12 per cent of men, have worn shoes they knew didn’t fit them because they looked nice.

When it comes to footwear, UK women have an average of 17 pairs of shoes compared to 8 pairs for the average male. When wearing high heels, on average it takes 1 hour, 6 minutes and 48 seconds for their feet to start hurting. One in five say they start to feel pain within just 10 minutes. A third of women (37 per cent) say they have walked home with no shoes on after a night out because their feet hurt and 28 per cent have danced bare foot while on a night out because of foot pain.

Age is also a factor. The younger the woman, the higher the heel worn, with 20 per cent of women aged 18-24 owning a pair of six inch high heeled shoes compared to 10 per cent of those aged 25-42 and just 3 per cent of 35-44 year olds.

In a separate survey, podiatrists indicated that the biggest cause of foot problems in the UK is footwear, with a lack of public awareness of common foot complaints also contributing to the problem. Lorraine Jones, podiatrist from The College of Podiatry said: “It’s shocking how little regard we show for our feet. Feet are one of the hardest working parts of the body and in a lifetime you will walk in excess of 150,000 miles. As a result of general wear and tear, most of us will suffer with some sort of foot complaint at some point in our lives but we are seeing a lot of cases which could have been prevented, particularly amongst women.

Conditions like blisters and cracked heels may sound like minor ailments, but they can cause a lot of discomfort and embarrassment. Many people don’t seek treatment early enough which means they suffer unnecessarily and their problems get worse. We all like to look good but it’s important to take a common sense approach to footwear. High heels and flip-flops are fine to wear occasionally but not all the time. For day to day wear you should opt for a well-fitting round toed shoe with a heel height of around 3cm.”