Differences in male and female lower extremity joint kinematics during walking

Abstract

Introduction: Men and women are claimed to walk differently- with modern techniques we are able to quantify gait parameters and establish whether those perceived dissimilarities are supported by precise measurements. Creating separate normative values for men and women may help in gait disturbances diagnosis, prevention and therapy. Objectives: We review available studies on normal locomotion in adult men and women, to clarify if there is scientific evidence to create separate normative values of normal gait according to gender. Methods: Potentially relevant articles were identified with an electronic search of PubMed, Web of Science and Science Direct. Combination of keywords ‘gait’, ‘sex’, ‘gender’, ‘men’, ‘women’, ‘male’, ‘female’ were used. Articles were included if they met following criteria: article was written in English, the article contained information about non-pathological subjects, the study analyzed biomechanics of walking, the article compared metrics of both sexes, the study included data for adults. If additional papers were identified from cited references and met the inclusion criteria they were incorporated into the catalog of references. Results: The inclusion criteria was met by 12 articles. After reviewing abstracts and full-text articles 8 were included and 4 were excluded due to not applying common gait biomechanics parameters or studying gait biomechanics for purposes not connected to the review’s topic. Conclusions: There are differences between males’ and females’ gait kinematic values for coronal plane pelvis and hip movement and possibly in sagittal plane ankle movement. Creating separate normative values is recommended.