Plantar pressure distribution and perceived comfort with elevated heel heights during standing and walking

This paper provides technical know-how for footwear manufacturers to develop high-heeled ladies shoes with improved comfort by measuring the plantar pressure distribution and perceived comfort of 5 female subjects (mean (SD): age 20.4 (4.3) years old, weight 52.0 (3.7) kg and height 161.2 (5.5) cm) during standing and walking with high-heeled shoes. To measure the plantar pressure, the subjects were randomly assigned three pairs of high-heeled shoes (heel heights: 1.8, 5 and 8 cm) with insole sensors inserted. The measured plantar pressure is divided into 8 regions for analysis. The visual analogue scale (VAS) was used to evaluate the footwear comfort of each experimental condition. The result indicates that during standing, exceptionally high pressure (>95 kPa) is consistently recorded in the heel regions (medial and lateral heels), while the mid-foot regions have the lowest plantar pressure. During walking, when the heel height is increased to 8 cm, the pressure in the heel and lateral regions (3rd-5th metatarsal heads (MTHs), lateral mid-foot) decrease and is redistributed to the medial forefoot (1st- 2nd MTHs). The perceived comfort of footwear is found to be determined by the mean peak pressure and contact area during standing and walking with correlation coefficients up to 0.972(P<0.05). Extra mid-foot support is suggested in high-heeled shoe design to enhance the interfacial contact between the insole surface and foot arch, and overall comfort of the footwear.