| The Relationship between Lower Extremity Muscle Strength and Gait Kinematics in Middle-aged and Elderly Females |
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Sang-Kyoon Park |
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Korea National Sport University |
Correspondence:
Sang-Kyoon Park,
Email: spark@knsu.ac.kr
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Received: 23 May 2011 • Accepted: 16 July 2011 |
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| Abstract |
INTRODUCTION
It has been suggested that muscle weakness of the lower extremity in an aged population is a risk factor of degenerative muscular-skeletal diseases. Especially, females show weaker muscle strength compared to males and the effect on biomechanical changes of the skeletal system requires more specific investigation. Thus, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the levels of lower extremity muscle strength and investigate its relationship to variables in gait biomechanics in middle-aged and elderly females.
METHOD
Twenty one healthy middle-aged to elderly females and eight healthy male counterparts were recruited for the measurement of muscle strength and gait analysis. Muscle strength of five major lower extremity muscle groups during maximum voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) was measured with a force dynamometer (Lafayette Instruments, USA). A system of eight infrared cameras (Vicon, UK) was used to collect the angles of the right ankle, knee, and hip during the stance phase of walking on the treadmill.
RESULT
The strength of the hip external rotator was approximately 35% in females compared with their male counterparts. Females showed a tendency to show more abducted knee during the stance phase of walking compared with males. More specifically, females who have weaker hip external rotator muscles tend to show more abduction of the knee based on correlation analysis between muscle strength of the lower extremity and biomechanical variables during walking.
CONCLUSION
The findings indicated that weaker hip external rotator muscles in females is related to changes in knee angles in the frontal plane during walking. That strengthening the hip muscle group may have a positive effect on gait biomechanics is proposed. However, further investigation in to whether strengthening hip muscles is beneficial to reducing joint loading, thus improving joint function, would be required before it is considered in the development of an intervention program for muscular-skeletal diseases. |
| Keywords:
Middle-aged to elderly females, Lower extremity muscle strength, Gait, Knee angles, Correlation coefficients |
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