Abstract
Abstract: Elderly women are reported to have greater risk of falls. The purpose of this paper was to investigate thepossible gender differences in the reaction performance of ankle joint muscles, which have dominant role in the controlof sagittal plane balance. Twenty-six elderly men and women with comparable mean age participated in this study.Reaction times to the audible beeps were measured in the tibialis anterior muscle and gastrocnemius muscle. Reactiontime variables included premotor time, electromechanical delay and total reaction time. Gender difference in each reac-tion time was investigated by independent t-test. In both muscles, premotor time was longer in men but the elec-tromechanical delay was longer in women (p < 0.05). Resulting total reaction time was longer in men in tibialis anteriormuscle (p < 0.01) and it tended to be longer in men also in gastrocnemius muscle (p = 0.25). The results demonstratesthat the overall reaction performances of elderly women is better than or comparable to those of elderly men in anklejoint muscles. This suggests that the reaction performance of ankle muscles is hardly the cause of the greater riskof falls in elderly women. Key words: Reaction time, Ankle joint, Gender difference, Risk of falls
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