Author(s): KIM, H., NEWBY, S., Institution: UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN LA CROSSE, Country: UNITED STATES, Abstract-ID: 301

INTRODUCTION:
Human locomotion is a complex process influenced by both internal factors (physiological states, including age, sex, and health conditions) and external factors such as uneven surfaces and habitual footwear. Habitual footwear can alter foot structure, gait patterns in the previous studies, and its functionality, such as step length and cadence, increased with barefoot compared to walking in habitual footwear. It is also observed that shoes increase double support and stance time. This preliminary study aims to investigate the differences in spatiotemporal gait parameters between barefoot walking and walking in habitual footwear while walking on the treadmill under metronome-guided conditions set to both preferred cadences.
METHODS:
Four healthy young adults voluntarily participated in this study and completed walking trials in two footwear conditions (barefoot, habitual shoes) at two metronome tempos (no metronome, preferred cadence) for five minutes. Data collection is still ongoing, aiming to recruit twenty healthy young adults in total. Spatiotemporal gait parameters (step length, step time, step width, stance phase duration, swing phase duration, and cadence) were collected using a Noraxon Phys Tread pressure-sensitive instrumented treadmill. A two-way repeated-measures ANOVA (footwear x metronome) was conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics software (Version 31.0) at a significant level of 0.05, acknowledging the limited sample size of this ongoing study.
RESULTS:
The effect of the habitual footwear on spatiotemporal gait parameters was examined, and a significant main effect of footwear was found for stance phase (p = 0.02) and swing phase (p = 0.02) durations. No other main effects of footwear were statistically significant in step length (p = 0.085), step time (p = 0.481), step width (p = 0.850), and cadence (p = 0.517), though a trend toward increased step length in footwear was observed. There were no significant main effects of metronome or interactions between metronome and footwear for any spatiotemporal gait parameters.
CONCLUSION:
In this preliminary sample, habitual footwear significantly altered the temporal phasing of gait (stance phase and swing phase durations) but did not significantly affect other spatiotemporal parameters under cadence-controlled walking. The trend in step length warrants investigation in a larger sample. Consistent with the known sensory dampening effects of shoes, the observed changes may relate to altered balance control strategies facilitated by footwear properties. Future analysis with a full cohort should include kinetic variables, such as foot pressure distribution or COP diagrams to better understand the mechanistic differences as it is known that barefoot walking enhances sensory feedback and may promote more stable gait patterns. These initial findings suggest that for studies focused solely on basic spatiotemporal gait parameters, footwear effect may be limited, but confirmation with adequate statistical power is essential.