A newly developed floor chair placed on an office chair reduces lumbar muscle fatigue by cyclically changing its lumbar supporting shape.
Tadamitsu Matsuda, Takayuki Koyama, Yasushi Kurihara and 3 others
PMID 28932006WHAT IT FOUND
Healthy young adults sitting without the moving lumbar support were more fatigued and stiffer in the left back muscles after one hour than those sitting with it.
This was a brief prototype test in people without back pain.
Key findings
01A left-side muscle fatigue measure, median frequency, was 78.5 before and 65.9 after an hour without the active support, while with active support it was 79.4 before and 89.6 after; the no-support change was marked significant.
02Without active support, left trunk rotation was 29.3 before and 24.3 after an hour, and stiffness was 47.9 before and 54.5 after on the right and 50.9 before and 61.5 after on the left; these changes were marked significant.
03Self-rated fatigue with active support was 2.5 before and 1.3 after on a 0 to 10 scale, and the difference was not statistically significant.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study included only 14 healthy adults with no current back pain, so it does not show effects in people with low back pain. All participants were around 21 years old, so findings may not apply to older workers or other age groups. The exposure was only one hour of seated desk work, so it does not show effects over a full workday or longer. The device was a prototype floor chair placed on an office chair, and the support cycle was fixed at 34 seconds; optimal settings were not established. Only some measures reached significance, and the fatigue rating change was not significant, so the evidence for a meaningful fatigue reduction is limited.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that this chair prevents or treats low back pain. It was tested in 14 healthy adults without current back pain for one hour, and only a few short-term muscle measures changed significantly.