Korean Males And Females Demonstrate Similar Construct Of Lower Extremity Characteristics As Caucasian Males And Females

Abstract

It has been reported that there are gender differences in lower extremity alignments (LEA). However, ethnic differences have not been examined. PURPOSE: To identify relationships among static LEA in Korean and the Caucasian males and females. METHODS: A total of 139 subjects [34 Korean males (age: 21.1±3.1yrs, height: 176.0±6.7cm, mass: 71.5±8.4 kg); 32 Korean females (age: 21.0±1.7yrs, height: 163.6±5.0cm, mass: 56.8±5.4kg); 39 Caucasian males (age: 33.8 ± 3.6yrs, height: 178.5±6.9cm, mass: 82.3±10.3kg); 34 Caucasian females (age: 31.7±2.8yrs, height: 164.9±6.7cm, mass: 67.1±16.2 kg)] participated. Eight static LEA [hip anteversion (AT), quadriceps angle (QA), tibiofemoral angle (TF), genu recurvatum (GR), rearfoot angle (RF), tibial torsion (TT), pelvic angle (PA), navicular drop (ND) were measured. Scree plot and factor analysis was conducted to examine the number of factors and relationships among static LEAs in each ethnic group. RESULTS: Categorization of factors and the Eigen values (EV) of factors in each group are as follows: In Caucasian males, the first factors (EV: 1.78) are ND [factor loading (FL): .84], and TF (FL: .69); the second factors (EV: 19.90) are PA (FL: .77), QA (.74), and TT (.46); the third factors (EV: 16.17) are GR (FL: .75), AT (FL: .63) and RF (FL: .56). In Caucasian females, the first factors (EV: 1.70) are ND (.80) and GR (.71); the second factors (EV: 1.70) are TT (FL: .73), RF (FL: -.63), QA (FL: .63) and AT (FL: .63); the third factors (EV: 1.51) are PA (FL: .79) and TF (FL: .73). In Korean males, the first factors (EV: 1.95) are PA (FL: .79), QA (FL: .65), TF (FL: .58) and GR (FL: -.53); the second factors (EV: 1.45) are RF (FL: -.87) and ND (FL: .65); the third factors (EV: 1.39) are AT (FL: -.77) and TT (FL: .71). In Korean females, the first factors (EV: 1.78) are ND (FL: -.82), RF (FL: .77) and TT (FL: .66); the second factors (EV: 1.66) are QA (FL: .88) and TF (FL: .82); the third factors (EV: 1.50) are AT (FL: -.78), GR (FL: .55) and PA (FL: .54). CONCLUSIONS: Similar categorization characteristics in QA, TF, ND, and RF in Korean males and females indicate that Korean males and females demonstrated similar LEA characteristics. These results were not found in Caucasian males and females. Therefore, it is suggested to consider ethnic differences to investigating the relationship between LEA and risk of injury.