Higher pain level and lower functional capacity are associated with the number of altered kinematics in women with patellofemoral pain

•Women with patellofemoral pain (PFP) presented at least two kinematic alterations.•Proximal, local, and distal kinematic alterations vary between women with PFP.•Altered movement pattern are associated with worst pain in women with PFP.•Altered movement pattern are associated with poor function status in women with PFP. This study investigated whether women with patellofemoral pain (PFP) present kinematic alterations in proximal, local, and distal factors simultaneously, and determined the association between the number of kinematic alterations, pain level, and functional status. A three-dimensional motion analysis system was used to analyze the peak hip adduction, peak knee flexion, and peak rearfoot eversion, addressing the proximal, local, and distal factors, respectively, in fifty women. Functional status and pain level were assessed using the anterior knee pain scale (AKPS) and a visual analogic scale. Receiver operating characteristic curves were calculated to identify participants with and without kinematic alterations and the number of them was obtained for each participant. Associations between the number of kinematic alterations, pain level, and AKPS score were determined by the Pearson correlation. Results showed that 52% of women with PFP presented at least two kinematic alterations of which 24% were local/proximal, 16% local/distal, and 12% proximal/distal. Three kinematic alterations were found in 48% of the women with PFP. A strong positive correlation was found between the number of kinematic alterations and pain (r=0.78; p