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Viscoelastic Response of the Human Lower Back to Passive Flexion: The Effects of Age

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Abstract

Low back pain is a leading cause of disability in the elderly. The potential role of spinal instability in increasing risk of low back pain with aging was indirectly investigated via assessment of age-related differences in viscoelastic response of lower back to passive deformation. The passive deformation tests were conducted in upright standing posture to account for the effects of gravity load and corresponding internal tissues responses on the lower back viscoelastic response. Average bending stiffness, viscoelastic relaxation, and dissipated energy were quantified to characterize viscoelastic response of the lower back. Larger average bending stiffness, viscoelastic relaxation and dissipated energy were observed among older vs. younger participants. Furthermore, average bending stiffness of the lower back was found to be the highest around the neutral standing posture and to decrease with increasing the lower back flexion angle. Larger bending stiffness of the lower back at flexion angles where passive contribution of lower back tissues to its bending stiffness was minimal (i.e., around neutral standing posture) highlighted the important role of active vs. passive contribution of tissues to lower back bending stiffness and spinal stability. As a whole our results suggested that a diminishing contribution of passive and volitional active subsystems to spinal stability may not be a reason for higher severity of low back pain in older population. The role of other contributing elements to spinal stability (e.g., active reflexive) as well as equilibrium-based parameters (e.g., compression and shear forces under various activities) in increasing severity of low back pain with aging should be investigated in future.

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Acknowledgment

This work was supported by an award (R21OH010195) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the CDC. The authors thank assistances of R. Tromp, E. Croft, and M. Vazirian in data collection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Kentucky, 514E Robotic and Manufacturing Building, Lexington, KY, 40506, USA

    Iman Shojaei & Babak Bazrgari

  2. College of Nursing, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40506, USA

    Kacy Allen-Bryant

Authors
  1. Iman Shojaei
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  2. Kacy Allen-Bryant
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  3. Babak Bazrgari
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Correspondence to Babak Bazrgari.

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Associate Editor Peter E. McHugh oversaw the review of this article.

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Shojaei, I., Allen-Bryant, K. & Bazrgari, B. Viscoelastic Response of the Human Lower Back to Passive Flexion: The Effects of Age. Ann Biomed Eng 44, 2817–2826 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-016-1569-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-016-1569-7

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