[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of wearing high heels while driving on lower extremity muscle activation. [Subjects] The subjects of this experimental study were 14 healthy women in their 20s who normally wear shoes with high heels. [Methods] The subjects were asked to place their shoes on an accelerator pedal with the heel touching the floor and then asked to p...

Foot pressures were measured in 10 healthy women, while walking in high-heeled (5.91 ± 1.03 cm) and low-heeled (1.95 ± 1.06 cm) shoes. The foot was divided into seven regions. For each region the following parameters were calculated: the peak pressure (PP), pressure time integral (PTI), maximum force (MF), force time integral (FTI), contact time (CT) and contact area (CA). In high heels loading...

BACKGROUND It has been proposed that high-heeled shoes may contribute to the development and progression of knee pain. However, surprisingly little research has been carried out on how shoe heel height affects muscle activity around the knee joint. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of differing heel height on the electromyographic (EMG) activity in vastus medialis (VM) and...

This work presents a morphological analysis of the evolution of the lateral foot shape with different heel heights. The purpose of the study was to set up a procedure to obtain the shank curve of feet for different heel heights and to develop a mathematical algorithm to calculate this curve for any heel height. This will have applications in the design of shoe components such as soles, lasts, s...

BACKGROUND Although footwear has been linked to falls in older people, it remains unclear as to which shoe features are beneficial or detrimental to balance in older people. OBJECTIVE To systematically investigate how footwear features affect balance and stepping in older people. METHODS 29 community-dwelling people (mean (SD) age, 79.1 (3.7) years) undertook tests of postural sway, maximal...

The study was taken up to investigate the effects of heel heights on lumbar kinematics and the risk of Low Back Disorder (LBD) in females. Nineteen female university students (24.5 ± 3.36 yrs) volunteered in the study. Lumbar kinematics was measured by using Industrial Lumbar Motion Monitor (iLMM). The volunteers were asked to walk for a distance of 50 meters in 3 different given conditions i.e...

Background Success of footwear as a modifiable intervention is complex and various qualitative studies have revealed that for women in particular shoes form an important part of clothing, self-identity and self-esteem. Whilst it is accepted that heel height may be an important differentiating characteristic of shoes that affect biomechanical function there is very little epidemiological longitu...

The purpose of this study was to determine whether electromyography (EMG) muscle activities around the knee differ during sit-to-stand (STS) and returning task for females wearing shoes with different heel heights. Sixteen healthy young women (age = 25.2 ± 3.9 years, body mass index = 20.8 ± 2.7 kg/m2) participated in this study. Electromyography signals were recorded from the two muscles, vast...

BACKGROUND Knowledge of gender differences in foot shape assists shoe manufactures with designing appropriate shoes for men and women. Although gender differences in foot shapes are relatively known among young men and women, less is known about how the older men and women's feet differ in shape. A recent development in foot shape assessment is the use of 3D foot scanners. To our knowledge this...