The Long-term Effect of High Heeled Shoes on Q-angle and Quadriceps Muscle Strength

To determine the long-term effect of high heeled shoes on Q-angle & Quadriceps muscle strength.

Comparative design

To measure q-angle, subject was in supine position, then a line was drawn from ASIS to the mid-point of the patella and another line is drawn from the Centre of the tibial tubercle to the mid of the patella. The angle where these lines intersect is Q-angle and was measured with goniometer. The quadriceps strength was measured using the modified sphygmomanometer bag method.

A comparative study was designed to determine the long term effect of wearing heeled shoes on Q-angle and Quadriceps muscle strength in 30 young females with mean age of 22.93±1.91 years, with mean height of 159.95±5.20, mean weight of 59.21± 8.89 kilograms and BMI of 22.74 ± 2.89 kilogram/centimeters, mean duration of wearing heel 7.6±1.8 hours and mean height of heel 3.9±1.7 inches presented with following results-Q-angle-The data analysis unveiled a significant increase in Q-angle as hypothesis with t-score = 5.44 (p>0.05) for the right side and t-score =2.7 (p>0.05) for the left.

There was no significant difference in Quadriceps strength were observed with a student's t-value of 1.13 (p<0.05) for the right side and t-value of 0.92 (p<0.05).

The subjects who were regularly wearing high heeled shoes for duration of more than 40 hours/week with a heel height of more than 3 centimeters showed an increase in their Q-angle. However, the strength of the Quadriceps Muscle remained unaltered with the regular wearing of high heeled shoes.