Prevalence of Morton’s toe:  a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

<ns3:p> Background When the second toe is longer than the big toe, it is referred to as Morton’s toe. Although the occurrence of Morton’s toe is considered normal and seen across many populations, its prevalence and associated risks have not been sufficiently explored. Some studies reported a very high occurrence of Morton’s toe, whereas others reported it to be low. These differences in prevalence of Morton’s toe and lack of a standard dataset regarding the associated risks of Morton’s toe made us perform a systematic review and meta-analysis on the prevalence of Morton’s toe. Methods A systematic literature search using PRISMA guidelines was performed in databases such as Google Scholar, MEDLINE, PubMed, SciELO, and ScienceDirect using search terms such as “Morton’s Toe” AND “Risks” AND “Prevalence,” which yielded 935 article links. Results Search yielded 935 article links. Of the five studies that met the inclusion criteria comprising 2636 feet were in the range of 16–90 years age. Our pooled analysis revealed that the prevalence of Morton’s toe was 40% and in different populations, it was ranging from 28–66%. Statistical heterogeneity among studies was extremely high, with a heterogeneity of I <ns3:sup>2</ns3:sup> = 97.5%, τ <ns3:sup>2</ns3:sup> = 0.0347 (p &lt; 0.0001), indicating that most of the variability in prevalence estimates was due to real differences between studies rather than sampling error alone. Conclusion This study provides a comprehensive picture of the prevalence of Morton’s toe, which varies from population-to-population and is associated with certain risks such as overpronation (turning inward) of the foot, bunion deformity, hammertoe, and plantar fasciitis. <ns3:bold>Open Science Framework (OSF) registration:</ns3:bold> https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/BGKY2. </ns3:p>