## 4 Discussion
The authors assumed that the females of this age (50 s) experienced menopause, something that can reduce spine mobility [62; 63]. After this period of life, older females (60 s) once more showed greater cervical ROM values than males. An additional important finding of this study is that 43.3% of the total sample presented short-term cervical pain. Previous studies reported a similar prevalence of neck pain in young adults as well as in middle-aged individuals [13; 14; 15]. In the present study, no significant differences were observed between males and females in the musculoskeletal pain parameters (prevalence of pain, duration, and intensity of pain, negative impact of musculoskeletal pains in daily activities). Other studies in the scientific literature reported conflicting results regarding the sex-related effect on musculoskeletal pain of the cervical joint. Several studies reported that cervical pain is more common in females than males, while other studies, in line with the results of the present study, reported no differences in cervical pain between males and females [16]. Previous investigators who demonstrated sex-related differences in musculoskeletal pain of the cervical joint mentioned that the lower cervical strength level is an important factor that may be the cause of this situation [41; 64]. It is not clear whether weak cervical muscles promote cervical pain or if cervical pain results in weaker musculature, but it seems that there is a connection between cervical pain and weakness [41]. In the present study, we also found a significant negative association between cervical pain and cervical strength, while no significant association was observed between range of motion values and cervical pain. The association between cervical range of motion and musculoskeletal pain shows conflicting results in the international literature, strengthening the importance of future studies on this topic. Some studies found significant associations between cervical range of motion and pain, whereas others did not find significant associations [23; 50]. This study has some limitations that could affect its outcomes, and, as a result, their generalizability. Firstly, the findings of this study are clearly limited to young (19-24 years old) physically active males and females, without any chronic health problems. Future studies could evaluate and create indicative values for cervical strength, ROM, and musculoskeletal pain in other age groups (children and adolescents, middle-aged and older individuals) as well as in individuals with different health and physical activity/training status. Furthermore, the results of this study are limited to the testing position (sitting position in a chair), the testing protocols, and the equipment (handheld dynamometer for cervical strength measurements and digital goniometer for cervical ROM measurements) used for the evaluation of cervical strength and ROM. Another limitation of this study is the fact that, except for the basic anthropometric characteristics (body mass and body height), we did not measure any head or neck anthropometric characteristics (absolute and relative neck length, neck circumference, head circumference etc.) in order to examine their association with cervical strength and ROM values in males and females. Additionally, the sample size (although it yielded adequate power, as mentioned in the Methods section) may be an additional limitation of this study. A larger sample could further strengthen the findings of the present study. Finally, the equipment (electronic goniometer, k-force Sens, Kinvent and handheld dynamometer, k-force dynamometer, Kinvent) that we used recently arrived on the market and, until now, there has been limited information regarding its reliability and validity. To the best of our knowledge, although there is no published information regarding the test-retest reliability of the electronic goniometer and the handhelddynamometer used at the cervical joint, previous studies in other joints reported good/high levels of reliability and validity.