The influence of high heeled shoes on balance ability and walking in healthy women.
Jong Hyuck Weon, Hyun Gyu Cha
PMID 30034095WHAT IT FOUND
Higher heels worsened balance and walking in healthy young women.
At 9 cm, balance time rose to 37.6 s and index fell to 45.6/100, while step length shortened to 51.3 cm. This applies only to healthy adults, not patients with existing deficits.
Key findings
01Balance time, anterior-posterior sway and medial-lateral sway all increased significantly at each higher heel height (3 cm to 6 cm to 9 cm), while the balance index score decreased significantly across the same comparisons.
02Walking step length and single support ratio decreased significantly as heel height rose, whereas walking velocity increased significantly.
03The authors state the sample of healthy young women limits generalisation to other ages or people with physical problems.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Only 30 healthy young women with no lower-extremity orthopaedic history, so findings do not apply to older adults or people with balance, sensory or musculoskeletal problems. Heel heights were tested in a prescribed order rather than randomised, which may have introduced order or learning effects. The velocity unit is reported as m/s but the values (80.3 to 90.2) are implausibly high for walking speed, suggesting a unit error in the paper. This was a single-session laboratory measurement; it says nothing about how habitual high-heel wear affects balance over time or in real-world environments.
Declared interests
Funded by the Joongbu University Research & Development Fund in 2018. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the worsening balance and shortened steps as evidence that high heels cause falls or injury in patients with existing impairments. The study tested only 30 healthy young women in a laboratory, and the authors explicitly state the results cannot be generalised to other ages or people with physical problems.