Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Jul;3(4):373-82.
doi: 10.1177/1941738111410180.

Sex differences in knee abduction during landing: a systematic review

Daniel W Carson  1 , Kevin R Ford
Affiliations

Sex differences in knee abduction during landing: a systematic review

Daniel W Carson et al. Sports Health. 2011 Jul.

Abstract

Background: Females suffer injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament at rates significantly higher than males. Frontal plane knee motion and load have been identified as major risk factors for anterior cruciate ligament injury and in turn have been examined extensively.

Methods: A systematic review of MEDLINE, CINHAL, and SportDISCUS was performed (1982-June 2010). Criteria for inclusion were the use of 3-dimensional analyses of frontal plane knee motion and moments during landing between males and females.

Results: Twenty-seven studies met the inclusion criteria and were reviewed. Sixty-three percent of included studies identified sex differences in knee abduction when landing across a variety of landing conditions.

Conclusions: Females appear to land with increased knee abduction motion compared with males in most biomechanics studies.

Keywords: anterior cruciate ligament; knee injury risk; sex differences; valgus.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Calculated effect size of knee abduction angle differences between sexes.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Frequency of abduction measurement events: distribution of studies that calculated abduction angle and moment during landings.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Agel J, Arendt EA, Bershadsky B. Anterior cruciate ligament injury in national collegiate athletic association basketball and soccer: a 13-year review. Am J Sports Med. 2005;33(4):524-530 - PubMed
    1. Agel J, Olson DE, Dick R, Arendt EA, Marshall SW, Sikka RS. Descriptive epidemiology of collegiate women’s basketball injuries: National Collegiate Athletic Association Injury Surveillance System, 1988-1989 through 2003-2004. J Athl Train. 2007;42(2):202-210 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Arendt E, Dick R. Knee injury patterns among men and women in collegiate basketball and soccer: NCAA data and review of literature. Am J Sports Med. 1995;23(6):694-701 - PubMed
    1. Benjaminse A, Habu A, Sell TC, et al. Fatigue alters lower extremity kinematics during a single-leg stop-jump task. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc. 2008;16(4):400-407 - PubMed
    1. Boden BP, Dean GS, Feagin JA, Jr, Garrett WE., Jr Mechanisms of anterior cruciate ligament injury. Orthopedics. 2000;23(6):573-578 - PubMed