Relationships among lumbar hip motion angle, perceptual awareness, and low back pain in young adults.
Ryo Miyachi, Ayaka Sano, Nana Tanaka and 2 others
PMID 34873367WHAT IT FOUND
Young adults with persistent low back pain who reported more disability had less lumbar movement and more hip movement during forward bending, and higher back awareness scores.
Pain intensity was not linked to these measures.
Key findings
01Pain intensity was not related to disability, back awareness, or lumbar and hip motion angles, while disability was related to back awareness.
02Disability was related to motion angles in early and mid trunk forward bending: lower lumbar motion angle from 10° to 40°, and higher hip motion angle and hip-lumbar difference at 10° and 40°.
03Back awareness was positively related to lumbar motion angle in trunk backward bending and negatively related to the hip-lumbar difference, but not related to pain intensity.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it can only show relationships, not causes. It included 36 university students, so results may not apply to older adults. Many participants had low back pain that was not chronic enough to require medical attention. The lumbar spine was analysed as a single segment, so differences between vertebral levels are unknown. Only sagittal plane movement was measured, so frontal and horizontal plane motion was not assessed. Knee motion was not measured during trunk backward bending, so hip and lumbar motion differences may be affected by knee compensation. The results text and the correlation table did not fully agree about some movement directions, so the exact movement relationships need checking.
Declared interests
The study was funded by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP19K24181. The authors declared no conflict of interest with any financial organization regarding the material discussed.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that changing lumbar or hip motion will reduce disability. This was a cross-sectional correlation study, so it only shows that some movement angles were related to disability scores, not that movement caused disability or that treatment would improve it.