Effects of Wearing Slippers While Obstacle Crossing in Healthy Young Adults: Strategy for Toe Clearance Enhancement and Prevention of Slipper Loss

Abstract

Wearing loose footwear, such as slippers, poses a risk factor for tripping. Previous studies have examined obstacle crossing to find strategies to avoid tripping. However, the effect of wearing slippers on the likelihood of tripping remains unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to determine whether wearing slippers while level walking and obstacle crossing affects kinematic characteristics and muscle activity. Sixteen healthy, young adults performed two tasks (a) while wearing slippers and (b) while barefoot: (1) level walking and (2) crossing a 10-cm obstacle. Toe clearance, joint angles, muscle activity, and cocontraction were measured for both the leading and trailing lower limbs. In the slipper-wearing condition, knee flexion and hip flexion angles were significantly increased in the swing phase for the leading limb (p < .001 and p < .001, respectively) and trailing limb (p < .001 and p = .004, respectively) compared with the barefoot condition. Tibialis anterior activity (p = .01) and muscle cocontraction of the tibialis anterior and the medial head of the gastrocnemius (p = .047) were significantly increased in the swing phase of the trailing limb for the slipper-wearing condition compared with the barefoot condition in the obstacle crossing task. Wearing slippers increased knee and hip flexion angles, and muscle cocontraction of the tibialis anterior and medial head of gastrocnemius increased during obstacle crossing. The results revealed that obstacle crossing while wearing slippers would require foot fixation adjustment in addition to increased knee and hip flexion to avoid toe collision.