The effect of wearing high-heeled shoes on the isokinetic strength of ankle muscles

BACKGROUND: There continues to be ongoing debates among researchers as to the positive or negative effects of short-term wearing of high heeled shoes (HH) on ankle muscles. OBJECTIVE: To investigate ankle functions among people wearing low-, mid-, and high-heel shoes as well as the effects different heel measurement heights have among the groups. METHODS: Seventy-eight female college students who habitually wore heeled shoes at various heights from 2.71 to 10.15 cm for approximately one academic year (40.10 +/- 10.13 weeks) took part in this study. Participants were grouped according to their heel heights: low-, mid-and high-heels. Body composition was measured as well as the isokinetic strength of ankle muscles at three different heights: 0 cm, 5 cm and 10 cm, relating to the distance between the standard foot attachment and the foot supporting plate. The isokinetic strength (in Nm) of the ankle dorsiflexor (DF), plantarflexor (PF), evertor (EV), and invertor (IV) muscle groups was recorded for the dominant and non-dominant sides. The total strength of ankle muscles (TSAM), which is the sum of the peak moment of all 4 muscle groups was calculated for both sides for all groups. RESULTS: The wearing of HH shoes significantly enhanced the isokinetic strength of all ankle muscles when measured at a height of 0 cm, and some ankle muscles (PF and EV) when measured at a height of 5 cm. However, these effects decreased as the measurement height increased for DF, PF, EV and IV (P < 0.05) for both sides. Moreover, there were no significant differences between high-and low-heels groups at the measurement height of 10 cm. The TSAM for both sides also showed no significant differences between groups when measuring at 10 cm. CONCLUSIONS: Wearing of HH shoes for one year may contribute to enhancing the isokinetic strength of ankle muscles when wearing flat or mid-heeled shoes. However, the positive effects that were measured in lower height conditions (0 cm and 5 cm) disappeared when measured using higher heights, indicating that wearing HH shoes yields no benefits for building ankle muscle strength.