Comparisons of incidence of spinal and lower extremity deformities according to the physical characteristics between sports major and nonmajor college students

Article information

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Musculoskeletal disorders are one of the most frequent health problem for people around the world. These disorders have great consequences for public health because of their severe impact on body’s disability, health care expenses, sick leave (Valkenburg, 1979). About 6% of the total healthcare costs (Meerding et al., 1998) and 30% of all sick-leave days are due to musculoskeletal problems (Moncrieff and Pomerleau, 2000).

Recently, research started to demonstrate a significant relationship between physical inactivity and variety of musculoskeletal disorders and health conditions. Several studies reported that regular aerobic exercise reduce the risk of suffering from various health conditions (Jakicic et al., 2003; Ketelhut et al., 2004). With the greater interest of the benefits of physical activity, a more health conscious population expressed interest in exercise. In school surroundings, it is natural that students majoring sports have greater chance to participate in sport activities than nonmajoring students.

It is well known that regular exercise brings muscle strength and endurance which are two important components of muscular fitness. Diseases and disorders of the musculoskeletal system, such as osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, bone fractures, connective tissue tears, and low back syndrome, are related to physical inactivity and a sedentary lifestyle (Heyward and Gibson, 2014).

However, questions have been raised regarding the incidence of body deformity by participation in sports activities. For example, sport activities with high impact has been found to be a risk factor for sports injuries and deformities of the musculoskeletal system (Kujala et al., 1997).

Agricola et al. (2012) also demonstrated that body deformities are more prevalent in athletes than in nonathletes and proposed that body deformities develops during adolescence and is probably to be affected by high-impact sports practice.

Spinal deformity alters normal spine biomechanics leading to global balance and possible detriment to quality of life (Fong et al., 2010). Imbalances of spinal alignment have been reported to relate to postural instability (Ishikawa et al., 2009). Any spinal deformity has been shown to suffer from long-term functional disturbances and earlier onset back pain and disc degeneration than normal individuals. Spinal deformities might be considered to relate to the lower extremities, such as knee or hip flexion and extension positions (Itoi, 1991). However, no study has reported on the relationship between spinal deformities and lower extremities.

Therefore, the purpose of the study was (a) to identify the incidence of each spinal deformity and lower extremity deformity and identify the relationship of the incidence between the deformities and (b) to identify the effects of major and physical characteristics (body mass index [BMI], gender, age, and dominant arm) on the development of 5 spinal deformities (forward head, protruding abdomen, kyphosis, lordodis, and scoliosis) and 4 lower extremity deformities (genu valgus, genu varus, genu recurvatum, and leg length discrepancy).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Participants

One hundred forty-seven sports major students and 54 nonmajor students participated in this study. Among them 133 students were males and 68 students were females. Physical characteristics of the subjects are listed in Table 1.

Table 1

Physical characteristics of subjects (n=201)

RESULTS

Table 2 shows the result of the relationship of deformity incidence between sport major and nonmajor. According to Table 2, the incidences of genu varus (P<0.00001), genu recurvatum (P= 0.007), forward head (P<0.00001), lordosis (P<0.00001), and scoliosis (P=0.0008) were significantly lower in nonmajor students compared to major students to the amount of 91%, 76%, 90%, 87%, and 73%, respectively.

Table 2

Relationship of deformity incidence between major and nonmajor

The relationship of deformity incidence between gender is presented in Table 3. As shown in Table 3, the incidences of genu varus (P=0.0017), leg length discrepancy (P=0.0015), and forward head (P=0.005) were significantly greater in women than their counterpart to the amount of 4, 2.3, and 2 times, respectively. However, in genu recurvatum (P<0.00001), kyphosis (P= 0.0001), and lordosis (P=0.0024), the incidences were significantly lower in women to the 80%, 91.4%, 91%, respectively.

Table 3

Relationship of deformity incidence between gender

Table 4 displays the result of the relationship of deformity incidence according to BMI. As seen in Table 4, students in overweight ([BMI]>24.5 kg/m²) showed significantly high incidence (4.7 times, P=0.0044) in genu varus compared to students with normal BMI, and revealed significantly low incidence in genu recurvatum (P=0.0047) and protruding abdomen (P=0.0002) to the amount of 64.6% and 79% each in overweight students.

Table 4

Relationship of deformity incidence according to body mass index (established abnormal when over 24.5)

DISCUSSION

The result of the study revealed that the incidence of spinal and lower extremity deformities in nonmajoring students showed significantly lower than sport majoring students. This result of the present investigation is consistent with the conclusion by Kujala et al. (1997) and Agricola et al. (2012). It is believed that adolescent with less musculoskeletal maturity may experience a increased risk for more skeletal damage and structural abnormalities when exposed to intense levels of sports activities.

Deformity incidence in women was significantly high in genu varus, leg length discrepancy, and forward head. On the contrary, the incidences of genu recurvatum, khphosis, and lordosis were significantly lower in women compared to their counterparts. These differences in compensatory mechanisms should be considered when evaluating and planning spinal and lower extremity deformities for further studies.

Genu varum is a physical deformity marked by bowing of the leg. One of the risk factors of this musculoskeletal alignment is stress on the knee joint such as with exercise. Chantraine (1985) hypothesized that the stress and strain on a joint caused by regular practicing of an intensive sport during adolescence may lead to a growth deformity. It is speculated that obese students participating sports activities to reduce the body weight may encounter genu varum before weight loss.

Article information Continued