Effects of Shoe Height on Footwear Comfort, Physiological Cost Index and Cardiorespiratory Indices among Young Female Adults in University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus

Musculoskeletal and gait alterations have been associated with prolonged wearing of highheeled shoes and has prompted several preventive measures. For further recommendations on safe foot wear practices, there is need for empirical evidences on the cardiorespiratory and energy costs of various shoe heights.

This study therefore evaluated the effects of shoe height on perceived footwear comfort, Physiological Cost Index (PCI) and cardiorespiratory indices of young Nigerian females.

Eighty consenting female undergraduate students (mean age = 21.5 + 1.86 years) with no history of spinal or gait disorders participated in this quasi-experimental study. Participants walked at self-selected walking speeds on a flat surface for 2 minutes while wearing flat shoes and high-heeled shoes, respectively. Pre-and post-intervention heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) as well as gait parameters were measured. Subsequently, PCI [(MeanHR at work-MeanHR at rest)/Walking speed] and perceived footwear comfort (PFC) were obtained. One way ANOVA and paired T-tests were used to compare results across trials. Alpha level was set at 0.05.

There were significant differences (p < 0.001) in the HR, RR, SBP, DBP, MAP, PCI, and walking distance, step frequency, stride length, step length and walking velocity of the participants between flat-shoe and high-heeled shoe-walking trials. However, there was no significant difference (p= 0.120) in the perceived footwear comfort between the two trials.

For improved cardiorespiratory, locomotory and metabolic efficiency during walking, wearing of flat shoes should be adopted.