In today's society, many women wear high-heeled shoes, but the effect of heel height on lumbar lordosis has not been clearly defined. The objective of this study was to identify the influence of heel height and general characteristics of subjects on lumbar lordosis. The subjects of this study were 40 healthy women who were students of the Department of Physical Therapy, College of Rehabilitation Science, Taegu University. Flexible ruler measurement was used to measure the lumbar lordosis at barefoot, 3 cm and 7 cm high-heeled standing positions. The results were as follows: 1) Significant statistical decrease in lumbar lordosis was observed as heel heights were increased from barefoot to 7 cm high heel. 2) There were no statistically significant differences between lumbar lordosis according to three different heel heights and weight, body mass index. 3) Lumbar lordosis measured at different heel heights was related to subject's height. With increasing subject's height, lumbar lordosis that measured from each heel height was significantly decreased. As heel heights were increased from barefoot to 7 cm high heel, significant statistical decrease in lumbar lordosis was observed in the subjects whose height were 151~160 cm. 4) Intrarater reliability on lumbar lordosis taken with a flexible ruler was good, with Cronbach values of 0.8971 for barefoot, 0.8107 for 3 cm and 0.9002 for 7 cm high-heeled standing positions.

• 윤소영(연세의료원 재활병원 물리치료팀) | Yun So-young