Elsevier

Gait & Posture

Volume 53, March 2017, Pages 254-259
Gait & Posture

Full length article
Is child walking conditioned by gender? Surface EMG patterns in female and male children

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaitpost.2017.02.009Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Gender differences in sEMG were retrospectively assessed during child walking.

  • Direct gender-related comparison with adults was also assessed.

  • Tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius activity in child is not conditioned by gender.

  • Female adults show a propensity for a more complex recruitment of ankle muscles.

  • Muscle activity conditioned by gender starts occurring when adolescence approaches.

Abstract

EMG-based differences between females and males during walking are generally acknowledged in adults. Aim of the study was the quantification of possible gender differences in myoelectric activity of gastrocnemius lateralis (GL) and tibialis anterior (TA) during walking in school-age children. Gender-related comparison with adults was also provided to get possible novel insight in maturation of gait. To this aim, Statistical gait analysis, a recent methodology performing a statistical characterization of gait by averaging spatial-temporal and surface-EMG-based parameters over hundreds of strides, was performed in100 healthy school-age children (C-group) and in 33 healthy young adults (YA-group). On average, 301 ± 110 consecutive strides were analyzed for each subject. In C-group, no significant differences (p > 0.05) were observed between females and males in GL and TA, considering mean onset/offset instants of activation and occurrence frequency. Stratifying the C-group for age, small differences between females and males in occurrence frequency of GL arose in oldest children. In YA-group, females showed a significant propensity for a more complex recruitment of TA and GL (higher number of activations during gait cycle, quantified by occurrence frequency) compared to males. These outcomes suggest that gender-related differences in sEMG parameters do not characterize the recruitment of GL and TA during child walking in early years (6–8 years), start occurring when adolescence is approaching (10–12 years), and are acknowledged in both ankle muscles only in adults. Present findings seem to support previous studies on maturation of gait which indicate adolescence as the time-range where gait is completing its maturation path.

Introduction

Differences between females and males during walking are generally acknowledged in adults. A wide literature focused on gender-related differences in temporal gait parameters. Compared with males, females showed higher mean cadences and shorter stride lengths [1], [2], [3]. Despite this, females and males tend to have the same comfortable walking speed [1], [3], [4]. Gender differences in joint kinematics and kinetics were also identified during walking task. Kerrigan et al. [5] showed that females had significantly greater hip flexion and less knee extension before initial contact. In pre-swing, females showed greater knee flexion moment and greater peak mechanical joint power absorption at the knee. Gender differences were reported also in frontal and transverse planes at hip and knee [6], [7], [8].

A smaller number of investigations on gender effect in adults during walking task were conducted by analyzing the electromyographic (EMG) signals recorded from the lower limb muscles. Chiu and Wang [9] showed that females produce significantly higher muscle activity in tibialis anterior, quantified by the normalized area under the EMG curve. Chung and Wang [10] added that the normalized area under the EMG curve in tibialis anterior depends on age and walking speed. A recent study [1] analyzed the effect of gender on surface EMG (sEMG) signals in terms of occurrence frequency, a parameter seldom considered in classic sEMG studies [11]. In adult females, it was detected an increase in percentage of gait cycles where tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius lateralis were recruited with a higher number of activations. A concomitant decrease in percentage of gait cycles where muscles were recruited with a lower number of activations were detected for females. This suggested a propensity of females for a more complex recruitment of muscles during walking, compared to males. To our knowledge, no analyses of the effect of gender on sEMG signal in school-age children have been reported in literature.

Thus, the aim of the present study has been structured in two following steps:

  • 1)

    the quantification of gender-related differences in myoelectric activity of gastrocnemius lateralis and tibialis anterior during walking at self-selected speed and cadence in school-age children, in terms of muscle activation patterns and occurrence frequencies of sEMG signal;

  • 2)

    direct gender-related comparison with young adults in terms of muscle activation patterns and occurrence frequencies of sEMG signal to get possible novel insight in maturation of gait.

To include the analysis of occurrence frequency that surfaced as a relevant parameter in adults, sEMG from numerous strides (hundreds) per subject were acquired.

Section snippets

Subjects

A retrospective study was performed, analysing gait data from 133 healthy subjects. Subjects were divided into two groups. C-group was composed of one hundred children (49 females and 51 males, 6–11 years), originally presented in Agostini et al. [12]. YA-group was composed of and 33 young adults (17 females and 16 males, 20-30 20–30 years), taken from those presented in [13] and [14]. Mean (± standard deviation) characteristics are: age 108.2 ± 16.3 months, height 133 ± 9 cm and, mass 30.6 ± 6.7 kg for

Results

In C-group, no significant differences were detected between females and males in age (107.6 ± 15.5 vs. 108.8 ± 17.3 months, p = 0.72), height (133 ± 10 vs. 134 ± 9 cm, p = 0.57), and mass (30.7 ± 7.2 vs. 30.6 ± 6.2 kg, p = 0.91). In YA-group, height (164 ± 3 vs. 180 ± 6 cm, p = 0.014) and mass (51.8 ± 3.2 vs. 72.5 ± 8.5 kg, p = 3.2·10−6) were significantly lower in females, compared with males. No significant differences were observed in age (23.5 ± 1.3 vs. 24.2 ± 2.3 years, p = 0.21). For each subject, a mean of 301 ± 110 strides was

Discussion

The present study was designed to achieve a comprehensive analysis of gender-related differences in the myoelectric activity of gastrocnemius lateralis and tibialis anterior during child walking at self-selected speed and cadence, in terms of muscle activation patterns and occurrence frequencies. Gender-related comparison with adults was also provided to get possible novel insight in maturation of gait.

In literature, studies for quantification of gender-related differences, based on

Conclusions

Present findings suggested that the acknowledged propensity of adult females for a more complex recruitment of TA and GL is not present in school-age children and likely starts developing with the approaching of adolescence. The evidence of an increased gender effect with increasing age on muscular recruitment may be useful in motivating the development of different biomechanical and electromyographic reference databases in children, adolescents, and adults. Moreover, the present sEMG data

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