Seat Pressure Distribution Characteristics During 1 Hour Sitting in Office Workers With and Without Chronic Low Back Pain

Abstract

BackgroundLow back pain (LBP) is a major problem for office workers. Individuals adopting poor postures during prolonged sitting have a considerably increased risk of experiencing LBP. This study aimed to investigate seat pressure distribution characteristics, i.e., average pressure, peak pressure ratio, frequency of postural shift, and body perceived discomfort (BPD), during 1 hour of sitting among office workers with and without chronic LBP.MethodsForty-six participants (chronic LBP = 23, control = 23) typed a standardized text passage at a computer work station for an hour. A seat pressure mat device was used to collect the seat pressure distribution data. Body discomfort was assessed using the Body Perceived Discomfort scale.ResultsOffice workers with chronic LBP sat significantly more asymmetrically than their healthy counterparts. During 1-hour sitting, all workers appeared to assume slumped sitting postures after 20 minutes of sitting. Healthy workers had significantly more frequent postural shifts than chronic LBP workers during prolonged sitting.ConclusionDifferent sitting characteristics between healthy and chronic LBP participants during 1 hour of sitting were found, including symmetry of sitting posture and frequency of postural shift. Further research should examine the roles of these sitting characteristics on the development of LBP.

Association of Exposures to Seated Postures With Immediate Increases in Back Pain: A Systematic Review of Studies With Objectively Measured Sitting Time

“…The titles and abstracts of the 361 remaining articles were screened, and of these, 75 full papers were accessed for further review of eligibility. Sixty-five articles were excluded and the remaining 10 articles, 21,[35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43] including data for 330 participants, were included in this study (Fig 1).…”

“…Of the 7 studies that examined an office-type chair, 1 study used a chair with the backrest removed. 43 All studies included time-controlled trials of sitting. Durations of sitting ranged from 1 hour to an average of 6.96 h/d (including breaks) for 5 days with the sitting duration in most studies (8 of 10) being between 1 and 3 hours.…”

“…Durations of sitting ranged from 1 hour to an average of 6.96 h/d (including breaks) for 5 days with the sitting duration in most studies (8 of 10) being between 1 and 3 hours. In all studies, ratings of perceived LBP or discomfort were made with a C10 Borg Scale, 43 a visual analog scale (10 cm 21,36,40 or 100 mm 38,39,42 ), the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire, 37,41 or the 5-point numerical rating scale. 35 Attempts were made to contact authors directly where pain rating data were presented with no reference to baseline measures.…”

“…Reporting in all included studies was appropriately done with some exceptions. Specifically, all included studies except 1 43 failed to justify their sample size. More complete details of the recruitment strategy, period, and locations could have been included by most of the studies, and the reporting of the statistical analysis was unclear in 1 study.…”

“…More complete details of the recruitment strategy, period, and locations could have been included by most of the studies, and the reporting of the statistical analysis was unclear in 1 study. 36 Consequently, 5 of the 10 included studies were rated as having an overall low risk of bias, 35,38,40,42,43 and 5 were rated as having a moderate risk of bias. 21,36,37,39,41 No study was rated as having an overall high risk of bias or as having a high risk of bias in any 1 domain.…”