A New Method for Measuring Angular Variations Caused by High Heels in Sagittal Plane of Tibiotalar and Metatarsophalangeal Joints During Gait

© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.Human gait varies slightly from one individual to another because of many factors, such as age or gender, but the use of high heeled shoes (HH) is among the most prominent, ones. This paper presents a novel low-cost procedure that effectively determines angular variations in the joints of the foot (tibiotalar and metatarsophalangeal) when walking barefoot and with HH (2, 6 and 10 cm high). Video analysis and geometry analysis techniques were used to stablish the position of the foot at every moment. Results confirmed that as heel height increased both the length of step and the length of gait cycle shortened, although cadence remained unaffected. The Range of Motion (RoM) in tibiotalar joint reduced progressively from 28° when walking barefoot to 9° when a 10 cm heel was used, while for metatarsophalangeal joint, these reductions ranged from 30° to 5°, respectively. Thus, the proposed methodology can be used to characterize kinematic changes in ankle-foot set along the gait cycle in a more accessible and cost-effective way.