Abstract
Background
Patellofemoral pain is one of the most common lower extremity overuse injuries in
runners and is significantly more common in females. This study evaluated differences
in the timing and magnitude of gluteal muscle activity as well as hip and knee joint
frontal and transverse plane kinematics between male and female runners in the context
of this gender bias.
Methods
Twenty healthy male and 20 healthy female runners were participants. Three-dimensional
lower extremity kinematics, and gluteus medius and gluteus maximus muscle activation
were recorded using motion analysis and electromyography as subjects ran at 3.7 m/s (+/−5%). Comparisons of hip and knee joint kinematic and gluteus muscle activation
data were made using independent t-tests (α=0.05).
Findings
Females ran with 40% greater peak gluteus maximus activation level (P=0.028, effect size=0.79) and 53% greater average activation level (P=0.013, effect size=0.93) than males. Female runners also displayed greater hip adduction (P=.001, effect size=1.20) and knee abduction (P=0.011, effect size=0.87) angles at initial contact, greater hip adduction at peak vertical ground reaction
force (P<0.001, effect size=1.31), and less knee internal rotation excursion than males (P=0.035, effect size=0.71).
Interpretation
Greater gluteus maximus activation levels during running may predispose females to
earlier gluteus maximus fatigue, promoting altered lower extremity running kinematics
thought to be associated with the etiology of patellofemoral pain. Gender differences
in transverse and frontal plane hip and knee kinematics observed in this study may
also contribute to the gender bias for patellofemoral pain among females.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 03, 2012
Accepted:
August 21,
2012
Received:
May 8,
2012
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 Elsevier Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
