High-heeled walking decreases lumbar lordosis

Abstract

An estimated 78% of women regularly walk in high heels. However, up to 58% complain about low back pain, which is commonly thought to be caused by increased lumbar lordosis. However, the extent to which a subject's posture is modified by high-heeled shoes during dynamic activities remains unknown. Therefore, we sought to evaluate whether low- or high-heeled shoes influence the kinematics of the pelvis and the spine during walking. Twenty-three inexperienced women, and seventeen women experienced in wearing high-heeled shoes, all aged 20-55 years, were measured barefoot and while wearing low- (4cm) and high-heeled (10cm) shoes during gait at a self-selected speed. A 22-camera motion capture system was used to assess the gait patterns for each condition. No significant inter-experience-group kinematic differences were found. In contrast to the results of some studies, our results show that the heels' height does indeed influence the motion of the pelvis and the spine during walking, whereby low-heeled shoes influenced the subjects' trunk kinematics during gait less than high-heeled shoes compared to barefooted walking. However, inexperienced high-heel wearers showed less thoracic curvature angle while wearing high-heels than while wearing low-heels. Importantly, both groups exhibited significantly lower maximum and minimal lumbar and thoracic curvature angles when wearing high-heeled shoes compared to the barefoot condition. As a result, it seems that low back pain might be associated with other factors induced by high-heels.

Keywords: Gait analysis; High heels; Shod walking; Trunk kinematics.