• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.65 no.7
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• pp.1242-1246
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• 2016

Heel rocking phase in gait cycle is from initial contact to forefoot contact. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of age on heel rocking time. Seven young women ($21.9{\pm}1.5yrs$) and seven elderly women ($74.1{\pm}6.7yrs$) participated in this study. Subjects wore the shoes equipped with pressure sensors and walked along 10 m walkway at comfortable speeds. Stride time, stance time, and heel rocking time were compared between groups. Stride time was not different between groups (p=0.087). Stance time was longer (p<0.001) but heel rocking time was shorter in the elderly than in the young (p<0.001). The shorter heel-rocking time in elderly women indicates less efficient shock-absorption in the heel-rocking phase, which might be related to the abnormal control and/or reduced performance of ankle dorsiflexors.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.316-322
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to investigate muscle activation of lower extremity such as rectus femoris, tibialis anterior and soleus according to 0cm(bare foot), 4cm and 7cm heel height of shoe on the rocking surface in older women. 20 older women who did not have any lower musculoskeletal and neurological disorders in the past were participated in this study. Each subject was standing for 15 seconds on the level 8 of Biodex Stability System (BSS) while wearing 4cm and 7cm heel height shoes including bare foot. Electromyography was used to measure muscle activation of lower extremity, and the muscle activation was expressed as a percentage of maximal voluntary isometric contraction (% MVIC). We measured % MVIC of three muscles during 5 seconds except for the first 5 seconds and last 5 seconds. SPSS 12.0 program was used for this study. Repeated one-way analysis of variance(ANOVA) was performed to compare the significant difference among the muscles of lower extremities according to heel heights of shoe on the rocking plate. % MVIC of each muscle such as rectus femoris, tibialis anterior and soleus regarding heel heights of shoe had statistically significant differences (p<0.05). The results of contrast test were as follows; 1) % MVIC of rectus femoris had significant differences between barefoot and 4cm, and barefoot and 7cm. 2) % MVIC of tibialis anterior had significant differences between barefoot and 4cm, barefoot and 7cm, and 4cm and 7cm. 3) % MVIC of soleus had significant differences between barefoot and 7cm, 4cm and 7cm. The results indicate that all commonly responsive muscle on the conditions of barefoot, 4cm, and 7cm shoe height on the rcoking surface is tibialis anterior muscle. We found out that the more heels of shoe high, the more muscle activation increases. High-heeled shoes above 7cm remarkably increase the muscle activation of lower extremity and may result in muscle fatigue. Thus, these shoes may summate risk factors of falls in older women. We can acknowledge that the heels above 4 cm affect each muscle activation in lower extremity on the rocking surface.