Quantitative Evaluation of High Heeled Gait Profile

Abstract

Wearing high heels for the long term will affect women’s health. It may increase the risk of developing foot deformities and rheumatism due to the uneven distribution of body load on lower limbs. The body tries to restore balance to adapt to the changing position of the body center of gravity, which leads to back pains in the long run. And this will directly alter the gait.

This paper aims to study the impact of high heels on gait deviation and represent this deviation by numerical values, such as gait profile score (GPS) and gait deviation index (GDI).

Experiments were conducted on 14 young female volunteers in the biomechanics lab at the Biomedical Engineering Department at Damascus University.

Gait analysis was used to calculate kinetic gait parameters for every participant for six cases: barefoot walking and walking with five different high-heeled shoes. GPS and GDI were calculated using the gait parameters, and gait deviation was evaluated. The study shows the effect of heel height on the gait. The barefoot GPS was (7.35±1.2), while its value was (13.8±1.2) for the 12cm heel. The GDI ranged from (102±8) for barefoot and (77.8±3) for the 12cm heel, and this value is so close to the pathologic gait, which explains the danger of wearing high heels in due course.

Keywords: Gait profile score (GPS), Gait deviation index (GDI), kinetic gait parameters, high heel.