ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Biomechanics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1509634
Assessing Lumbar Posture Variability in Individuals with Chronic Low Back Pain in Daily Life
Provisionally accepted
- 1Center for Musculoskeletal Surgery, Charité University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- 2Julius Wolff Institute for Biomechanics and Musculoskeletal Regeneration, Charité Medical University of Berlin, Berlin, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
- 3Department of Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Medical School Berlin, Berlin, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
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Investigating lumbar spinal posture has become increasingly important for understanding the development and persistence of low back pain (LBP). However, there is a notable lack of studies analyzing changes in lumbar posture variability in individuals with LBP compared with healthy individuals in daily life. This study aims to address this gap by examining whether lumbar posture patterns differ between individuals with and without LBP throughout the day.Methods: A prospective study design was utilized, including individuals with and without chronic LBP. Lumbar postures were continuously measured over a 24-hour period using the Epionics SPINE system.The study included 208 (115 females) asymptomatic individuals and 104 (62 females) individuals with LBP. Individuals with LBP exhibited significantly fewer main lumbar postures during the day compared to healthy participants (1.7 vs. 1.9 main postures, p=0.020; r=0.132). When analyzed by sex, these differences remained statistically significant in males (1.6 vs. 1.9 main postures, p=0.034; r=0.183) but not in females (1.7 vs. 1.8 main postures, p=0.238; r=0.089). Age did not significantly influence these results.The observed changes in lumbar spinal posture variability should be taken into account when developing treatment plans for individuals with chronic LBP. Further research is needed to confirm the impact of increased posture variability on pain persistence.
Keywords: Spine, Low Back Pain, Movement, conservative treatment, Physiotherapy
Received: 11 Oct 2024; Accepted: 21 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Schömig, Bashkuev, Reitmaier, Fleig, Pumberger and Schmidt. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Friederike Schömig, Center for Musculoskeletal Surgery, Charité University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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