Assessing the Relationship between Body Composition and Spinal Curvatures in Young Adults

Ferruh Taspinar*, Ismail Saracoglu, Emrah Afsar, Eda O Okur, Gulce K Seyyar, Gamze Kurt and Betul Taspinar

Introduction:  Although  it  is  thought  that  abdominal adiposity  is  one  of  the  risk  factor  for  postural  deviation, such as increased lumbar lordosis, the  studies  in  the  literature  only  explored  the  effects  of  body mass index on spinal alignment and postural changes. The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation with detailed body composition and spine alignment in healthy young adults.

Materials and Methods:This cross-sectional study was conducted with sixty seven healthy volunteers (37 men and 30 women)  whose  ages  ranged  between 18 and 25  years.All participants’ sagittal spinal  curvatures of lumbar and thoracic region were measured via Spinal mouse® (Idiag, Fehraltorf,  Switzerland).Also, body composition analysis (total fat ratio, total muscle ratio, visceral fat ratio, and body muscle ratio) estimation by means of bio electrical impedance were evaluated via Tanita Bc  418  Ma  Segmental Body Composition Analyzer (Tanita, Japan).Pearson’s correlation was used to analysis among the variables.

Results:The mean lumbar lordosis and thoracic kyphosis angles were 21.02°±9.39, 41.50°±7.97,  respectively.Statistically  analysis  showed  a  significant positive correlation between total fat ratio and  lumbar lordosis angle (r=0.28, p=0.02).Similarly, there was a positive correlation between visceral fat ratio and lumbar lordosis angle (r=0.27, p=0.03). The thoracic kyphosis angle showed also positive correlation with total fat ratio (r=0.33,p=0.00) and visceral fat ratio (r=0.40,p=0.01).The total muscle ratio showed  negative correlation between lumbar lordosis (r=-0.28,p=0.02) and thoracic kyphosis angles (r=-0.33,  p=0.00), although there was no statistically correlation between trunk muscle ratio,lumbar and thoracic curvatures (p>0.05).

Conclusion:The  study  demonstrated  that  an  increase  of  fat  ratio  and  decrease  of  muscle  ratio  in abdominal region or whole body shifts the spinal alignment which may adversely affect the spinal loading.Therefore, body composition should be taken into account in spine rehabilitation.

Keywords: Spinal curvature; Kyphosis; Lordosis; Body composition; Posture

Published on: Jun 1, 2017 Pages: 10-15

Full Text PDF Full Text HTML DOI: 10.17352/asmp.000005
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