Article

Although wearing high-heeled shoes has long been considered a risk factor for the
development for patellofemoral pain (PFP) in women, patellofemoral joint kinetics
during high-heeled gait has not been examined. The purpose of this study was to
determine if heel height increases patellofemoral joint loading during walking.
Eleven healthy women (mean age 25.0+/-3.1 yrs) participated. Lower extremity
kinematics and kinetics were obtained under 3 different shoe conditions: low heel
(1.27 cm), medium heel (6.35 cm), and high heel (9.53 cm). Patellofemoral joint
stress was estimated using a previously described biomechanical model. Model
outputs included patellofemoral joint reaction force, patellofemoral joint stress
and utilized contact area as a function of the gait cycle. One-way ANOVAs with
repeated measures were used to compare the model outputs and knee joint angles
among the 3 shoe conditions. Peak patellofemoral joint stress was found to
increase significantly (p=0.002) with increasing heel height (low heel: 1.9+/-0.7
MPa, medium heel: 2.6+/-1.2 MPa, and high heel: 3.6+/-1.5 MPa). The increased
patellofemoral joint stress was mainly driven by an increase in joint reaction
force owing to higher knee extensor moments and knee flexion angles. Our findings
support the premise that wearing high-heeled shoes may be a contributing factor
with respect to the development of PFP.
CI - Copyright (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS