Changes in Seasonal Footwear Elicited Alterations in Gait Kinematics but Not Stability

During daily walking, humans might contend with various perturbations from slippery surfaces in the winter to uneven sidewalks in the summer. Inertial sensors enable investigations of how humans maintain balance under these natural conditions, but conducting these outdoor studies has practical considerations that might influence study results, such as the selection of footwear under different weather conditions. Our study investigates the effects of winter and summer shoe types on gait patterns, specifically whether different shoe types induce changes in gait stability measures under the same walking environment. Twelve healthy adult participants walked indoors with winter and summer shoes while their gait kinematics were recorded using an inertial sensor-based motion capture system. Spatiotemporal measures, body kinematics, stability measures (minimum margin of stability and local divergence exponent), and stepping regressions were calculated to evaluate differences between walking in summer and winter shoes. Statistical significance was determined by paired t-tests. Varying shoe types altered spatiotemporal and kinematic measures, such as increased stride time and stance time while wearing winter shoes, but increased step width and reliance on stepping were the only stability-related changes found. Our study provides insights into the influence of footwear for inertial sensor-based gait studies in real environments, aiding the analysis and interpretation of those studies to augment our understanding of natural stability behavior.