Investigation of Dynamic Heel Height Effect of Shoe on Joints of Lower Body during Walking

The aim of this research is to dynamically investigate the effect of high-heel shoes on the amount of internal forces and torques produced in the lower body joints (hip, knee, and ankle joints) during walking. To do so, the gait analysis of the subject, in two states of walking barefoot and with high-heel shoes, has been conducted in a Musculoskeletal Research Center and then the required kinematic data including rotation matrices, angular velocity and angular acceleration of lower legs using kinematic analysis of legs have been derived. Also, the ground reaction forces have been measured using a force plate installed in the lab and by presenting a 3D dynamic model of lower legs and solving the inverse dynamic problem of model, forces and moments of the joints for two above modes during stance phase of a gait cycle have been calculated. Based on obtained results from investigation of dynamic effect of high-heel shoes during walking, variations of internal joint forces have not been salient. However, internal joint moments in state of gait with high-heel shoes respect to barefoot walking, have been had considerable increase. According to the results, long-term wear of high-heel shoes can lead to damage of lower body joints, especially the knee joint, as well as driving muscles of these joints.