New Affordable Method for Measuring Angular Variations Caused by High Heels on the Sagittal Plane of Feet Joints during Gait

Gait is influenced by many factors, but one of the most prominent ones shoe heel height. Optical motion tracking technology widely used to analyze high-heeled gait, it normally involves several high-quality cameras and licensed software, so clinics researchers with low budgets cannot afford them. This article presents a simple, effective technique measure rotation angles on sagittal plane ankle (tibiotalar) toe (metatarsophalangeal) joints when no shoes (0 cm heel) (2, 6 10 heels) are worn. The foot’s position was determined set equations based its geometry video analysis techniques free software (Tracker). An evaluation spatio-temporal variables confirmed observations from previous studies: increasing heights reduces gait cycle length speed does not change cadence. range movement at tibiotalar joint progressively narrowed 28° height worn 9° used, these reductions ranged 30° 5° for metatarsophalangeal joints, respectively. aligns other authors’ studies, confirms that proposed method accurately measures kinematic ankle–foot changes wearing high heels.