Summary: | Gait is influenced by many factors, but one of the most prominent ones is shoe heel height. Optical motion tracking technology is widely used to analyze high-heeled gait, but it normally involves several high-quality cameras and licensed software, so clinics and researchers with low budgets cannot afford them. This article presents a simple, effective technique to measure the rotation angles on the sagittal plane of the ankle (tibiotalar) and toe (metatarsophalangeal) joints when no shoes (0 cm heel) and high-heeled shoes (2, 6 and 10 cm heels) are worn. The foot’s position was determined by a set of equations based on its geometry and video analysis techniques with free software (Tracker). An evaluation of the spatio-temporal variables confirmed observations from previous studies: increasing heel heights reduces gait cycle length and speed but does not change cadence. The range of movement at the tibiotalar joint progressively narrowed from 28° when no heel height was worn to 9° when a 10 cm heel was used, and these reductions ranged from 30° to 5° for metatarsophalangeal joints, respectively. This aligns with other authors’ previous studies, and confirms that the proposed method accurately measures kinematic ankle–foot set changes when wearing high heels.
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