Head and neck anthropometry, vertebral geometry and neck strength in height-matched men and women

Women have an increased incidence of whiplash injury and neck pain compared to men. Physical and numerical models represent one avenue to explore and potentially explain these gender differences, but a valid model of the female neck does not yet exist. A fundamental question in the development of a female neck model is whether female necks are simply scaled versions of male necks, or whether there are significant inter-gender geometrical differences. The goal of this study was to quantify differences in head and neck geometry and neck strength in pairs of male and female subjects matched for standing height and neck length. Based on 14 matched pairs of men and women, we found that most head and neck anthropometric parameters were significantly smaller in females compared to males. Moreover, gender differences in a number of neck anthropometry parameters (an average of 9–16% smaller in females) were larger than differences in head anthropometry parameters (an average of 3–6% smaller in females). Female vertebrae between C3 and C7 were significantly smaller than male vertebrae in the anterior–posterior dimension (p<0.012) but not in the medial–lateral dimension (p>0.07). Female necks were also significantly weaker than male necks (32% weaker in flexion and 20% weaker in extension; p<0.001), and these strength differences corresponded well to those predicted solely from the observed geometric differences. These results demonstrate that male and female necks are not geometrically similar and indicate that a female-specific model will be necessary to study gender differences in neck-related disorders.