• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.55-63
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• 2001

For spinal flexibility measurements to be meaningful to clinicians or researchers, they must have a normative information and an understanding of how different variables affect spinal range of motion (ROM). Normal spinal ROM measurements are influenced to differing degrees by many factors. These factors include age, gender, time of day, leisure activities, previous history of low back pain, warming up, and the techniques with which normative data are collected. The additional variables of standing height, ratio of standing height to sitting height, and obesity had not been previously studied extensively and were shown to have a significant effect on flexibility in the sagittal plane. These relationship cannot be explained easily. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between spinal flexibility and individual factors (weight, standing height, and ratio of standing height to sitting height) that influence it. Fifteen healthy subjects between the ages of 20 and 27 years were studied. Two physical therapists measured independently the spinal forward bending ROM in the sagittal plane by Remodified Schober test and Finger-to-floor test. In order to determine the statistical significance of the result the Pearson's correlation was applied at the .05 level of significance. The results of this study were as follows: 1) Significant relationship was not identified between spinal flexibility and weight. 2) Significant relationship was not identified between spinal flexibility and standing height. 3) Significant relationship was not identified between spinal flexibility and ratio of standing height to sitting height.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.171-179
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• 2009

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes of obesity, blood composition and physical ability in obese children on body weight control program. Methods : The body weight control program included exercise, nutrition education and auricular acupuncture was performed 4 times a week during 12 weeks. 32 obese children whose body fat ratio were over 30% participated in this study. Measuring materials were body composition(weight, muscle mass, fat mass, fat ratio, BMI), physical measurement(height, waist circumference, chest circumference, hip circumference), physical ability(grip strength, sit-ups, sitting trunk flexion, sit-down stand-up test, standing long jump, opened eyes foot balance, side step), blood composition(WBC, Hb, ESR, Total Cholesterol, TG, GOT, GPT, BUN, Creatinine, Glucose) and survey(changes of eating habits, changes of living habits, knowledge of obesity, self-confidence, self-esteem). Results : From the results, positive changes were made in BMI, height, waist circumferences, chest circumferences, hip circumferences, sit-ups, sitting trunk flexion, sit-down stand-up test, standing long jump, opened eyes foot balance, side step, Hb, ESR, GOT, GPT and changes of eating habits through the body weight control program. Conclusions : This results suggest that body weight control program including exercise, nutrition education and auricular acupuncture may be effective for helping obese children.