An Investigation of the Association between Transversus Abdominis Myofascial Structure and Activation with Age in Healthy Adults using Ultrasound Imaging.
Nathaly Gaudreault, Justine Benoît-Piau, Jan Paul van Wingerden and 3 others
PMID 34386288WHAT IT FOUND
Healthy adults aged 18 to 77 showed thinner deep abdominal muscles and reduced transversus abdominis activation with age, while the surrounding fascial layers thickened.
These ultrasound measurements provide reference values for assessing normal aging, helping distinguish typical changes from pathology.
Key findings
01Muscle thickness of the external oblique, internal oblique, and transversus abdominis decreased significantly with age, while the thickness of the associated epimysial fasciae increased.
02Transversus abdominis activation ratio showed a moderate negative correlation with age, indicating that the ability to contract this muscle decreases as people get older.
03Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that age and gender explained the variance in transversus abdominis activation, but muscle and fascia thickness did not significantly predict activation levels.
STILL TO COME
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What it does not show
The study only included healthy adults, so the results cannot be generalized to people with chronic conditions, pain, or spinal pathology. The method for measuring fascia thickness with ultrasound is new and has limited reliability data, particularly regarding participant variability. The study did not account for physical activity levels, which could influence muscle structure and activation. The cross-sectional design cannot prove that aging causes these changes, only that they are associated with age.
Declared interests
The authors declared no commercial relationships or conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that thickened fascia or thinned muscles cause the reduced transversus abdominis activation seen in older adults. The study found that while these structural changes and reduced activation occur with age, the structural measures did not predict activation levels in the regression analysis.