Low back pain and sit-and-reach of the middle aged and elderly
Hisashi NAITO, Isao KOGURE and Junichiro AOKI
The present study investigated the differences in sit-and-reach of the middle-aged and subjects with and without a history of low back pain. One hundred and sixty-one elderly and middle aged(52 10 years old; male = 51, female = 107) were questioned about current low back pain or history of low back pain in the prior 6 months. Sixteen subjects (male= 10, female=6) with current low back pain were excluded from the present study. There were 15 males (29.4%) and 25 females (23.40o) with a history of low back pain in the previous 6 months group (LBP). The ability to sit-and-reach in subjects with LBP was significantly lower than that in those without low back pain(7.8 cm vs. 11.8 cm p <0.05). However, the data for each group largely overlapped, so it was suggested that predicting low back pain would be difficult by measuring the ability to sit-and-reach.