The influence of heel height related on quality of life on the foot in a sample of women

Abstract

Many women have worn high-heel shoes (HHS) at some point in their lives and many wear them on a daily basis, with higher prevalence between 39% and 78% observed in institutional and clinical settings. The purpose of this study was to describe and compare the scores obtained with regard to foot health and health in general in a sample of women that use HHS as opposed to a sample of women without HHS with normalized reference values. A sample of 120 participants with a mean age of 41.94 ± 13.912 came to a health center where self-reported data were registered. The subjects with and without HHS were determined and the scores obtained were compared in the Foot Health Status Questionnaire (FHSQ). This questionnaire is made of 13 questions that assess 4 health domains of the feet, namely pain, function, general health and footwear. The women in the HHS group showed a worse quality of life related to health in general and to foot health specifically. Differences between the two groups were evaluated by means of a t-test for independent samples, showing statistical significance (P<0.01). Women with HHS present a negative impact on the quality of life related to foot health.

Foot Pain in High Heels Woman users: Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Based on (López-López et al, 2018) research, 120 research subjects show that women who use high heels will decrease their quality of life due to leg pain complaints. High heels' use impacts foot pain in line with the windlass mechanism theory (the toes bring to dorsiflexion and plantar fascia tightens).…”

The Influence of Heel Height on Strain Variation of Plantar Fascia During High Heel Shoes Walking-Combined Musculoskeletal Modeling and Finite Element Analysis

“…In the United States, approximately two million people experience symptoms of heel and plantar pain due to plantar fascia injury yearly (Chen et al, 2015). Known as plantar fasciitis, it is caused by excessive repetitive loading of the plantar fascia leading to microtears and inflammation of the calcaneal adhesions (Luffy et al, 2018;Trojian and Tucker, 2019), and it is a common complaint among women, especially those wearing high heel shoes (HHS) regularly (López-López et al, 2018).…”