Decrease in Neuromuscular Control About the Knee with Maturation in Female Athletes

TLDR

Female athletes exhibit greater dynamic valgus angulation of the knee during jump landings than males, whereas pre‑maturation forces and motions are similar. The study tests whether maturation‑driven musculoskeletal changes lead to poorer neuromuscular control of the knee in female athletes. Kinematic and kinetic assessments of medial knee motion, lower‑extremity valgus angle, and knee joint torques were performed and compared between female and male athletes across maturational stages, with bone length also measured. After maturation, female athletes exhibit greater medial knee motion, higher maximum lower‑extremity valgus angles, reduced flexor torques, and asymmetry between dominant and nondominant limbs compared to male athletes, indicating altered jump‑landing mechanics.

Abstract

Compared with male athletes, female athletes demonstrate increased dynamic valgus angulation of the knee during landing from a jump, although prior to maturation male and female athletes have similar forces and motions about the knee when they land from a jump. Our hypothesis was that musculoskeletal changes that accompany maturation result in poor neuromuscular control of the knee joint in female athletes.One hundred and eighty-one middle-school and high-school soccer and basketball players-100 girls and eighty-one boys-participated in the study. Dynamic control of the knee joint was measured kinematically by assessing medial knee motion and the lower-extremity valgus angle and was measured kinetically by assessing knee joint torques; the values were then compared between female and male athletes according to maturational stage. Lower-extremity bone length was measured with three-dimensional kinematic analysis.Following the onset of maturation, the female athletes landed with greater total medial motion of the knees and a greater maximum lower-extremity valgus angle than did the male athletes. The girls also demonstrated decreased flexor torques compared with the boys as well as a significant difference between the maximum valgus angles of their dominant and nondominant lower extremities after maturation.After girls mature, they land from a jump differently than do boys, as measured kinematically and kinetically.