title: Is child walking conditioned by gender? Surface EMG patterns in female and male children.
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Engineering, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy. Electronic address: f.dinardo@univpm.it.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Di Nardo
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Engineering, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy.
authors.forename: Giulio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Laureati
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Engineering, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy.
authors.forename: Annachiara
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Strazza
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Engineering, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mengarelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Engineering, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Burattini
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronics and Telecommunications, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Agostini
authors.affiliation: Rehabilitation Unit, S. Croce Hospital, A.S.L. TO5, Moncalieri (TO), Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nascimbeni
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronics and Telecommunications, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Knaflitz
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Engineering, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy.
authors.forename: Sandro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fioretti
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000843:Ankle Joint / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004576:Electromyography / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005684:Gait; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016138:Walking; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Ankle flexor muscles; Children; Gender; Statistical gait analysis; Surface electromyography