Effect of Heel Heights on Female Postural Control During Standing on a Dynamic Support Surface With Sinusoidal Oscillations

ABSTRACT

The authors aimed to investigate female balance or stability control with comparative analysis of the center of pressure trajectory and plantar pressure distribution with different high-heeled shoes while standing on a dynamic surface with multidirectional perturbations. College females with at least 2 years' history of wearing high-heel shoes voluntarily participated in the test with a Novel Pedar insole (Novel, GmBH, Munich, Germany. With heels height increasing, the pressure time integral obviously transfer to the medial forefoot region, with center of pressure trajectory medially deviated significantly, either under anteroposterior or mediolateral perturbations. The passive plantarflexion position of ankle incurred by high heel increased the range of motion in the frontal plane but decreased ankle stability, thus increasing the challenge of body balance maintenance.

Keywords:

• center of pressure trajectory
• dynamic unstable surface
• high-heeled shoes
• stability and balance

Funding

The authors acknowledge the financial assistance of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81301600), Zhejiang Social Science Program ‘Zhi Jiang youth project’ (16ZJQN021YB), and K.C. Wong Magna Fund in Ningbo University toward this research.