Nondisabled ambulators wear shoes of different heel
heights with little or no difficulty. However, persons who
use lower-limb prostheses are often restricted to the use
of a narrow range of heel heights. When the shoe heel
height is changed beyond this small range on a prosthesis,
an alignment change is necessary to accommodate
the higher or lower heel height. The general aim of this
study is to examine the automatic adaptations that occur
in the nondisabled ankle-foot system in an effort to gain
insight for the development of improved prostheses.
Previous studies of nondisabled persons wearing
high-heeled shoes have measured numerous biomechanical
factors, including standing posture, walking kinematics
and kinetics, pressures applied to the plantar surface
of the foot, and energy cost [1–10]. One particular measurement
that was made in many of these studies is the amount
A