Effect of high-heeled shoe insole on walking ability, muscle activity, and comfort: a randomized control study

This study was carried out in order to identify the influence of a shock-absorption insole developed by the author for use with high-heeled shoes on walking. This research was designed with single-blind, random, and parallel groups. A group of 26 persons wore shock-absorbing insoles with high-heeled shoes and a group of 26 persons who did not wear the insoles with 7cm high-heels both carried out 3m of walking. During walking, the plantar pressure (the in-shoe plantar pressure) analysis, a surface electrode electromyogram (the surface EMG), a gait analysis (gait analysis), subjective comfort evaluation, and functional movement (functional mobility) analysis were performed. In order to compare the two groups, a statistically matching sample t-verification (paired t-test) was carried out. Wearing the shock absorbing insole with the high-heeled shoes improved the posture stability during walking. It also increased the speed of the walking. In addition, it decreased the heel pressure, the pressure of the front foot at the inner side, and the shock ability. Due to this, the wearer reported higher comfort. The changes of the muscle activity of the tibialis anterior muscle (TA) and the gastrocnemius muscle (GA) heightened the stabilities of the ankle joints. The shock-absorbing insole for use with high-heeled shoes developed by the researcher improved the posture stability when walking. It also improved the distribution of the pressure of the soles. A decrease of the diverse side-effects of wearing high-heeled shoes thus can be expected.