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High-heel design has always been one of the popular features of women's footwear. Forcing the ankle into a passive plantar-flexed state, high-heeled shoes considerably alter walking kinematics and kinetics. Despite reported adverse effects on the musculoskeletal system1, social and fashion customs encourage the continued use of high-heeled shoes2.
Optical tracking systems, currently used in the majority of gait-analysis laboratories for both clinical and research purposes, give accurate and reliable measurement of 3D lower-limb joint motions3. This technology provides a "gold standard" for gait analysis4. Consistent results based on the technique have revealed that higher heel heights lead to larger knee flexion and ankle inversion when compared with flat shoes5,6,7. GRF is another commonly used parameter in gait analysis. The shift of GRF toward the medial forefoot, reduced GRF during mid-stance, increased vertical GRF at heel-strike, and increased peak anterior-posterior GRF have also been observed in high-heeled walking1,6,7,8.
Previous studies referenced above use methods based mainly on level walking. In modern society, running for a bus, darting across a busy street, or dashing to catch the last train push more and more women to use higher speeds every now and then. There are limited studies concerning lower-limb biomechanics during high-heeled jogging and running. Gu et al. noted that the joint motion range of knee abduction-adduction and hip flexion-extension increased significantly as the heel height increased during jogging9. The limitation of this study is that they only recruited habitual high-heel wearers. The frequent use of high-heeled shoes can potentially induce structural adaptions in lower-limb muscles. Zöllner et al. created a multiscale computational model revealing that muscle is able to gradually adjust to its new functional length due to the use of high heels after a chronic loss of sarcomeres in series10. Evidence also demonstrates that kinematic accommodations in gait caused by high-heeled shoes vary between experienced and inexperienced wearers11. Data collected from both experienced and inexperienced subjects may mask statistical results12. It is important to explore whether the biomechanical changes are similarly obvious in inexperienced and experienced users.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in lower-limb kinematics and vertical GRF between experienced wearers (EW) and inexperienced wearers (IEW) during moderate high-heeled jogging and running. It was hypothesized that EW would show faster self-preferred jogging and running speeds, less joint motion, and larger vertical GRF during jogging and running.