Joint mobility in children: a population study.
The mobility of five joint pairs ( metacarpophalangeal, wrist, elbow, knee and ankle) was investigated in 3,000 mixed school children of Bahia, Brazil. A sampling method was designed to assure an equal number of fifty children in the smallest classes, when age, race and sex were held constant. Race was classified in five subgroups to assess the proportion of Black admixture. Multiple regression was carried out to analyze the data. The results showed a consistent effect of age on decreasing joint mobility, The effect of race was also on decreasing mobility of wrist, elbow and ankle; the darker the child, the less the joint mobility. However, the effect of sex showed no general consistency; for wrist, elbow and knee the girls had more mobility than the boys; for the ankle the boys had more mobility than the girls; and the metacarpophalangeal joint there was no sex difference. The complexity of multicausal effects on joint mobility are discussed considering the simultaneous interplay of biological and environmental actions.
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000843:Ankle Joint / Q000502:physiology; D002648:Child; D004551:Elbow Joint / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007596:Joints / Q000502:physiology*; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008662:Metacarpophalangeal Joint / Q000502:physiology; D044469:Racial Groups; D012737:Sex Factors; D014955:Wrist Joint / Q000502:physiology