Abdominal trunk muscle weakness and its association with chronic low back pain and risk of falling in older women

Abstract

Background Previous studies have indicated that trunk muscle strength decreases with chronic low back pain, and is associated with poor balance, poor functional performance, and falls in older adults. Strengthening exercises for chronic low back pain are considered the most effective intervention to improve functional outcomes. We developed an innovative exercise device for abdominal trunk muscles that also measures muscle strength. The correlation between muscle weakness, as measured by our device, the presence of chronic low back pain, and decreased physical ability associated with a risk of falling were evaluated in older women. Methods Thirty-eight elderly women, who could walk without support during daily activities and attended our outpatient clinic for treatment of chronic low back pain, knee or hip arthritis, or osteoporosis, were included in this study. Anthropometric measurements were performed. Grip power and one-leg standing time with eyes open were measured, and abdominal trunk muscle strength was measured using our device. History of falling in the previous 12 months was noted. Subjects with chronic low back pain (visual analog scale score ≥ 20 mm) for over 3 months were assigned to the low back pain group ( n = 21). The remaining subjects formed the non-low back pain group ( n = 17). Results Abdominal muscle strength of subjects in the low back pain group, and with history of falling, was significantly lower compared with that of subjects in the non-low back pain group, and in subjects without a history of falling, respectively. There was a moderate positive correlation between abdominal trunk muscle strength and one-leg standing time with eyes open. Conclusion We measured abdominal muscle strength in older women with chronic low back pain using our device, and it was significantly lower than that of those without chronic low back pain. Muscle weakness was associated with a history and risk of falling.

Low back pain is closely associated with frailty but not with sarcopenia: Cross‐sectional study of rural Japanese community‐dwelling older adults

“…Second, we expected that the adoption of ASMI but not trunk muscle mass in AWGS 2019 sarcopenia criteria 4 is responsible for the ambiguous correlation between LBP and sarcopenia in community‐dwelling older adults. Trunk muscle weakness is predominantly associated with the development of LBP, 5,8,10 although ASM is positively associated with trunk muscle mass. In a cross‐sectional analysis from a prospective cohort study of Japanese local residents, Tanishima et al .…”

“…reported that muscle atrophy might lead to chronic LBP at multiple levels of the lumbar spine 9 . Several studies have indicated that atrophy of the back muscles is a significant factor that causes LBP 5,8,10 . Recent reports suggest that there is a relationship between sarcopenia, frailty and a specific orthopedic disease that causes LBP 11,12 .…”

Effects of Low Back Pain on Balance Performance in Older People: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

“…proprioceptive losses, weakening of lower-extremity sensory feedback, and trunk muscle weakness and atrophy [26,28,29,32] . Thus, when aging is combined with LBP, impaired motor performance and balance dysfunction worsen.…”

“…Following the title andabstract screening, 35 fulltext articles were retrieved. The full-text review was completed to determine nal inclusion; 17 articles (13 case-control studies [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] , four RCTs [33][34][35][36] ) met the inclusion criteria. Only the 13 case-control studies were included in the meta-analysis.…”

“…Hicks (2018) [30] Y Y Y U N Y N N N Y N 5 Silva (2016) [31] Y Y Y Y N Y N N N Y N 6 Kato (2019) [32]…”