The effect of sitting posture on the loads at cervico-thoracic and lumbosacral joints

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The sitting in an awkward posture for a prolonged time may lead to spinal or musculoskeletal disease. It is important to investigate the joint loads at spine while sitting.OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the joint moment and antero-posterior (AP) reaction force at cervico-thoracic and lumbosacral joint for various sitting postures.METHODS: Twenty healthy males participated in this study. Six sitting postures were defined from three spinal curvatures (slump, flat, and lordosis) and two arm postures (arms-on-chest and arms-forward). Kinematic and kinetic data were measured in six sitting postures from which joint moment and AP reaction force were calculated by inverse dynamics.RESULTS: In the cervico-thoracic joint, joint moment and AP reaction force were greater in slump than the flat and lordosis postures (p< 0.001) and also in arms-forward posture compared to arms-on-chest posture. In the lumbosacral joint, joint moment and AP reaction force were greater in slump than flat and lordotic posture (p< 0.001) but there was no difference between different arm postures. The joint loads (moment and AP reaction force) at the cervico-thoriacic joint were closely related to the head flexion angle (r> 0.86) while those at the lumbosacral joint were correlated to the trunk flexion angle (r> 0.77). In slump posture, the joint moments were close to or over the extreme of the daily life such as sit-to-stand and walking. Consequently, if the slump is continued for a long time, it may cause pain and diseases at the cervico-thoracic and lumbosacral joints.CONCLUSIONS:The results of the study indicated that the lordosis or flat would be better spinal postures. Also, keeping arms close to body would be desirable to reduce joint loads.

Sitting Posture, Sagittal Spinal Curvatures and Back Pain in 8 to 12-Year-Old Children from the Region of Murcia (Spain): ISQUIOS Programme

“…This causes a posterior movement of the nucleus pulposus that pushes onto the wall of the fibrous ring, with a risk of protrusion and possibly damaging the ring. Finally, (d) increased tension in posterior ligaments, especially due to muscle relaxation [20,21,26].…”

“…It should be noted that Quintana-Aparicio et al [25] already demonstrated how students between 8 and 10 years of age sat in hyperkyphosis in more than half of the cases when listening to the teacher. It is important because if the slump is continued for a long time, it may cause pain and diseases at the cervicothoracic and lumbosacral joints [26]. Slump sitting position is associated with an increase in the spinal load [8,21], and there is greater pressure on the intervertebral disc than in the neutral posture [27,28] and a concentration of stress that can produce degeneration [22,29,30].…”

Complex treatment of patients with vertebral thoracalgia using manual therapy and physical rehabilitation

“…Manual therapy as a treatment for vertebral syndromes has been described by many authors. At the same time, MT in the form of monotherapy is inferior to complex treatment with the use of MT and physical rehabilitation [10,11,13].…”

“…In this regard, in recent years there have been quite a lot of works devoted to the gradual rehabilitation treatment for patients with neurological signs of degenerative-dystrophic pathology (DDP) of the spine [4,10,12,13]. However, most of them were dedicated to the treatment of patients with lumbar osteochondrosis.…”

Мануальна Терапія Вертебральних Грудних Неврологічних Синдромів

“…Всі ці питання підлягають вивченню та впровадженню в практику нових, більш ефективних комплексних заходів, в тому числі і з використанням МТ і кінезотерапії. Роботи, присвячені удосконаленню діагностичних і лікувальних заходів вертебральних больових синдромів, є актуальними [4,[10][11][12][13].…”