Sex Differences in Posture and Kinematics of the Human Head and Neck

INTRODUCTION Many studies have shown that females are more likely to experience neck injury and neck pain, particularly whiplash injuries in rear-end collisions [1, 2]. The intrinsic sex differences in the neck skeleton may be one of the possible reasons for higher incidence in females. Generally, males’ bones are larger than females’, and the skull is one of the most reliable skeletal predictors of sex [3]. Even in men and women who were matched for height and neck length, females had significantly smaller head and vertebral size [4].