Prevalence and Degree of Lower Limb Inequality in Asymptomatic Young Adult Nigerians

Objective: The development of right and left lower limbs start at the same time and subsequent serial growth occurs simultaneously however at adulthood, small but usually functionally negligible differences exist in their lengths. This study set out to find out the prevalence and degree of lower limb length inequality (LLI) amongst young adult Nigerians with grossly normal lower limbs.

Methods: Full length and segmental lengths of one hundred and three healthy young adult Nigerians of different ethnic groups were measured using the direct clinical method.

Results: The overall prevalence of LLI was 89.3% while the rate for male and female was 96.2% and 82.4% respectively. The LLI range was 0.5 - 2.5 cm with majority being less than 2.0 cm. The LLI was significantly higher in male (1.18 ± 0.83 vs 0.75±0.60 cm). Side for side, the male limb is significantly longer than that of the female. The thigh girth was significantly wider in the female while there was no difference in the leg girth between male and female. The males were found to be significantly taller than the females. Inter-ethnic comparison of the various parameters did not reveal any significance difference.

Conclusion: Anatomical lower limb inequality is very common amongst young adult Nigerians without any gross musculoskeletal but it is not obvious.