Effects of Wearing Slippers on Walking Gait

概要

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To determine how slippers should be designed to prevent falling while walking, we examined how slipper quality was related to differences in walking gait. We asked 20 young adults (10 males and 10 females) to wear slippers of 4 different qualities and walk in them at a free pace for 8 meters. We evaluated their gaits during 3 random paces in each slipper and analyzed electromyograms of their legs while walking. We also performed subjective evaluations of the slippers and their flexibility. Our results suggest that walking in slippers with poor flexibility prevents dorsiflexion of the ankle joints during the single-leg support phase. Furthermore, hip joint flexion should be increased and knee joint extension should be delayed in order to prevent the feet from coming into contact with the floor during the end of the swing phase. Our results also suggest that slippers that are poorly fitting, presumably due to the effect of flexibility of slipper sole, are more prone to shift from the feet during the swing phase. Thus, an appropriate amount of flexibility needs to be determined to prevent slippers from causing elderly to fall.