Influence of asthma on posture and spinal biomechanics in children
Asthma; Posture; Photogrammetry; Kid.
Abstract
Introduction: Proper posture is a consequence of the balance of skeletal and muscular structures. In childhood this balance may be altered due to daily lifestyle habits. In diseases with airway obstruction, such as asthma, there may be an overload of the respiratory muscles with excessive use of accessory inspiratory and expiratory muscles, resulting in changes in muscle length with consequent functional changes. Objective: To evaluate the influence of asthma on posture and biomechanics of the spine of children. Methods: This is a cross-sectional observational study, which evaluated children aged 7 to 12 years with a clinical diagnosis of asthma and healthy children, matched for age, sex, height, percentile and physical activity practice. Anthropometric assessments, range of motion, flexibility and muscular strength of the spine were performed, as well as handgrip strength, pulmonary function test, evaluation of the presence of sleep disorders and anxiety symptoms in both groups, clinical control of Asthma and asthma severity and quality of life were assessed only in children with asthma. Comparative tests were applied using the t-test, considering groups as a factor, and then the effect size was calculated. Preliminary results: When the cervical and thoracic-lumbar range of motion variables were compared with clinical asthma control, only thoracic-lumbar extension movement showed a significant difference with p value of 0.02 (TE 0.40). In the comparisons between the strength of the cervical and thoracic-lumbar spine muscles with the clinical control, a significant difference was observed for cervical extension force with p value of 0.02 (TE 0.40). Comparing the postural and biomechanical variables with the severity of asthma, the thoracic-lumbar extension muscle strength was the only one with a p-value of 0.005 (TE 0.43). Conclusions: The findings suggest that there are significant differences in thoracic-lumbar extension range of motion and cervical spine extension force between the clinical control groups and difference between thoracic-lumbar extension force in asthma severity.