• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.1211-1214
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• 2004

High-heeled women have been identified with balance control problems. The purposes of this study were to objectively quantify the displacements and velocities of center-of-pressure (COP) of body during waist pulling and to compare the differences between barefooted and high-heeled situations. We used a waist pulling system which has three different magnitudes to sway the subjects. We found that the kinematic information of barefooted and high-heeled women's COP is very important in understanding the mechanism of postural balance control of women in every-day life. In the high-heeled's case, the displacement of COP increases in 200％ as against bare footed. Also the velocity variation of COP grows three times than the bare footed. COP analysis in postural balance study of high-heeled women is also considered useful in development of the safety systems that prevent high-heeled women from falling

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.365-377
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• 2011

The dual purposes of this study were to investigate footwear worn by college students who have become spoilt for choice in apparel & shoes, and point out the problems of their shoe-wearing habbits. The survey was administered in October, 2010 to 600 college residents in Kwangju-Jeonnam area and the results are as follows. Firstly, the most frequently worn footware by males were sneakers, followed by dress shoes and oxford shoes. Females followed a similar trend with sneakers being the most frequently worn, followed by high heeled shoes, flat shoes, wedge high heeled shoes and chucker boots. Secondly, both male and female students thought that the most comfortable and favorable shoes for them were sneakers and the most uncomfortable ones were high-heeled shoes and sandals. They thought chucker boots were both fashionable and comfortable. Thirdly, the degree of unsatisfaction for shoes was relatively high and the influencing factors for unsatisfaction were uncomfortable soles, aches around the toes and a frontward leaning posture of the body, etc. Finally, 87% of the female subjects who had experience wearing high-heeled(over 7cm height) shoes showed a significant increase in foot disorders than those who had never worn high-heeled shoes. According to the results, it is necessary to educate proper selection and wearing of footwear in order to prevent foot disorders and maintain overall health of the body.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.245-252
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• 2013

Objective: This paper analyzes the changes on stride parameters, joint angles, and trajectories of the body parts due to high heels during walking and explains the causal relationship between the changes and high heels. Background: This study aims to indicate the comprehensive gait changes by high heels on the whole body for women wearing high heels and researchers interested in high-heeled walking. Method: The experiment was designed in which two different shoe heel heights were used for walking (1cm, 9.8cm), and twelve women participated in the test. In the experiment, 35 points on the body were tracked to extract the stride parameters, joint angles, and trajectories of the body parts. Results: Double support time increased, but stride length decreased in high-heeled walking. The knee inflexed more at stance phase and the spine rotation became more severe. The trajectories of the pelvis, the trunk and the head presented outstanding fluctuations in the vertical direction. Conclusion: The double support time and the spine rotation were changed to compensate instability by high heels. Reduced range of motion of the ankle joint influenced on the stride length, the knee flexion, and fluctuations of the body parts. Application: This study can provide an insight of the gait changes by high heels through the entire body.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.224-230
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of height of the shoe heel in a one leg standing posture on the muscle activity of the rectus abdominis, erector spinae, hamstring, and rectus femoris. Twenty healthy female subjects were asked to perform a one leg standing posture with three types of shoes, which had different heights of shoe heel, 0cm, 3cm, and 7cm. Surface electromyography was used to evaluate the activities of the right rectus abdominis, erector spinae, hamstring, and rectus femoris muscles. The data was analyzed by repeated one-way ANOVA and the muscle activities among three heights of shoe heel were compared. The results showed that the muscle activities of the erector spinae and rectus femoris increased significantly according to increase height of shoe heel (p<0.05). The activity of the rectus abdominis and hamstring were not significantly different among the three height of shoe heel (p>0.05). These results suggest that the height of shoe heel affects the lumbo-pelvic alignment and center of mass; therefore, high-heeled shoes lead to musculoskeletal pain in the lumbopelvic, hip, and knee areas.

• Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.763-775
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• 1998

Some segment or segments of the body must compensate for the heel, and the higher the heel the greater the compensation. Such compensation was once generally thought to take place in the lumbar region and therefore to increase the lumbar lordosis. The purpose of this study is to analyze changes of lumbar sagittal curvature in barefoot and 6cm 12cm high-heel stance. We selected 19 subjects(11 males, 8 females} without history of lower back pain, significant spinal abnormality. And lateral view X-ray of lumbar region from T12 to S1 was taken of each individual. On each X-ray film, lumbar lordotic angle lumbosacral angle and lumbar segmental angles were measured by Cobb method. We drew the following interpretations from the analysis of measured variables of the lumbar region. 1. In comparison of barefoot 6cm heel 12cm heel stance, lumbar lordotic angle had a tendency to decrease according as the heel height was higher. The change in lumbar lordosis measured in high-heel stance was inconsistent with clinical forkelord of hyperlordosis in wearers of high-heeled. 2. Lumbar lordotic angle from T12 to L5 showed sex difference, and was more lordotic in female(p<0.05). 3. There was no sex difference in lumbosacral angle and lumbar segmental angles(p>0.05). 4. There was a significant correlation between lumbar lordotic angle and lumbosacral angle(r>0.60).

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.53-57
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• 2023

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the changes in the muscle activation of the quadriceps muscle (rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis) during the stand-to-sit (StandTS) movement according to the plantar flexion angle of the ankle joint. Methods: A total of 22 healthy young females participated in this study. During the StandTS under the three conditions (plantarflexion angle 0°, 20°, and 45° of the ankle), electromyography (EMG) data (% maximum voluntary iso¬metric contraction) of the rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, and vastus medialis were recorded using a wireless surface EMG system. Results: There was a significant difference in the muscle activation of rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, and vastus medialis according to the plantar flexion angle (0°, 20°, and 45°) of the ankle. The muscle activation of the quadriceps was the highest at a 45° angle of plantarflexion and the lowest at 0°. One-way repeated ANOVA was used to analyze the muscle activation data of the lower extremity muscles according to the angle of the ankle joint. Conclusion: Based on the results of our study, it was confirmed that the muscle activity of the quadriceps can be increased even in the StandTS movement, which involves the eccentric contraction of the quadriceps muscle. This suggests that maintaining a plantar flexion posture for a long time, say by wearing high-heeled shoes, can quickly cause muscle fatigue in the lower-limb muscles, which can cause a decrease in balance ability leading to falls.