Reports for adult population indicate that almost 80% of the adult population has reported some form of lower back aches. Each year American workers suffer more than 300,000 lost-time injuries involving musculoskeletal disorders of the back, with the costs that run into billions of dollars.
Sedentary tasks are known to be major contributing factors of back pain. Prior studies have indicated that the myoelectric activity of the lumbar region decreases when the back rest inclination of a seat increased. An increase in seat pan inclination so that it increases pressure on the leg muscles is also a cause for back pain. Seating posture is also known to be a leading cause of back pain. This study focuses on the response of the latissimus dorsi muscle in the trunk, to the backrest and seat angle inclinations for different seating postures.
Twenty one participants took part in the backrest experiment. The automobile seat backrest angle was varied for two angles of 90 and 100 degrees in a one hour driving session. Ten participants took part in the seat angle experiment; the seat was set at 0 and 10 degrees for a 30 minutes session at each angle. The muscle activity of the latissimus dorsi was recorded for seating postures at each angle.
Based on the electromyography data, the results of analyses of variance for mean of root mean square values for the backrest experiment (P < 0.05) showed significant change. In seat angle experiment the analysis of variation of the mean values for root mean square values at (P < 0.05) was significant. It is concluded that increased backrest and inclined seat angle decreases muscle activity in the latissimus dorsi muscle.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-04152004-125305 |
| Date | 16 April 2004 |
| Creators | Saidu, Milton Maada-Gormoh |
| Contributors | Fred Aghazadeh, Craig Harvey, Bhaba Sarker |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04152004-125305/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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