Higher Risk of Non-Contact Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury in the Non-Dominant Limb during Single-Leg Lateral Jump...

Non-contact anterior cruciate ligament injury is a common sports injury, for which biomechanical factors are considered important. Gender and limb dominance influence lower limb biomechanics. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effects of gender and limb dominance on trunk and lower extremity biomechanics in the frontal plane during single-leg lateral jump landing. A total of 20 active individuals (10 male and 10 female) were recruited to perform lateral single-leg jump landing. The study was conducted in a motion analysis laboratory. Ten Vicon™ cameras (200 Hz) synchronized with an AMTI force plate (1,000 Hz) were used to capture kinematic and kinetic data. A three-dimensional (3D) model of the trunk and lower extremities was constructed using Visual3D software. Average data of ground reaction forces (GRFs), frontal motion of the trunk and lower limb, and frontal joint moment of the lower limb were reported and analyzed. A two-way mixed ANOVA model (2 × 2, gender × side) was used to analyze the primary effect. The significance level of 0.05 was set for statistical analysis. Active females exhibited significantly higher peak vertical GRF (p = 0.01) than males. The non-dominant limb had a significantly higher knee valgus moment at the peak vertical GRF (p < 0.001), the knee valgus angle excursion (p = 0.03), and the hip abductor moment at the peak vertical GRF (p < 0.001). Both groups used similar frontal plane lower extremity control strategies. A significantly higher knee valgus excursion, hip abductor moment, and knee valgus moment at the peak vertical GRF phase were observed in the non-dominant limb. Therefore, the non-dominant limb appeared to have higher loading at the hip and knee joints during landing.