INTRODUCTION: The use of shoes may influence the kinematics parameters of the foot segments during gait. OBJECTIVE: To test a biomechanical model developed to measure the angular displacement of the foot segments during gait of individuals using shoes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ten healthy young individuals participated in the study. A pair of shoes was used during the study. The Qualisys Pró-Reflex system was used to measure the following outcome variables: angular displacement of the rearfoot in the sagittal, frontal and transverse planes of motion and forefoot in the frontal and transverse planes. The Intraclass Correlation Coefficient was calculated to verify the association between the following variables between visits: maximum and minimum joint angles and the total range of motion. RESULTS: The investigated outcomes demonstrated values of intra-rater reliability ranging from moderate to excellent. DISCUSSION: This study presented a feasible and reliable method to measure the angular displacement of the foot segments during gait using shoes. The methods can be applied during scientific researches and clinical assessments of the kinematics during human gait. CONCLUSION: The quality of the method developed and the reliability analysis realized demonstrated motion patterns of the segments of the foot similar to what is demonstrated in the literature. In addition, the protocol is noninvasive, does not require an additional reference device, subtalar neutral position and does not depend on information provided by X-ray images.
Kinematics; Foot; Gait; Reliability; Shoes
